A Big Quiet House [Paperback]

Heather Forest (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

There once was a man whose house was very small, the story opens. It was cluttered with things from wall to wall. With a tiny, cluttered house, giggling children, and a snoring wife, the poor man can't get a good night's sleep. If only, he thinks, I had a big quiet house! He throws off his covers and goes to visit the wise old woman at the edge of the village. Surely she can help him solve his problem. And she does, but not without giving him some very unusual advice. Bring a ....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Forest revisits the popular Yiddish folktale that also inspired Margot Zemach's classic It Could Always Be Worse (1976). A poor man who longs for a "big quiet house" where his wife's snoring and his children's giggling will not annoy him consults the wisest woman in the shtetl (most versions cast a rabbi as the advice-giver). On successive visits, she instructs him to bring first a chicken, then a goat, horse, cow, and a sheep inside his house, which of course adds to the din. Finally, when she tells him to remove the noisy animals, the man has a new appreciation for his relatively large and quiet house. Forest hams up her telling with intermittent rhymes and refrains, inviting audience participation with a number of animal noises, but she lacks Zemach's canny wit and expert pacing. Greenstein enhances the story's historical flavor by using watercolor and streaky white pencil on a black surface, resulting in a pleasingly old-fashioned, woodcut-like appearance. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-A flawed retelling of a familiar folktale. When a peasant complains that his small hut is too crowded and noisy, an old woman (in traditional versions, a wise man) tells him to bring first one animal, then another, and then still more into the house. Finally, when the poor man is driven to distraction by the crowd and the noise, she tells him to remove all the animals. The peasant is then delighted to find that his once-crowded hut is now roomy and filled only with the joyful sounds of his family. Forest's narrative slips in and out of rhyme to the extent that the inconsistency becomes annoying. Some of the couplets flow naturally, while some seem forced. The meter is erratic as well. Greenstein's bright, colorful scratchboard illustrations add a delightfully humorous tone to the piece, although the consistency of her depiction of the small town will not bear close scrutiny. Collections that already have Margot Zemach's It Could Always Be Worse (Farrar, 1990), Marilyn Hirsh's Could Anything Be Worse? (Holiday, 1974; o.p.), or Joanna Cole's It's Too Noisy! (HarperCollins, 1989) can pass on this one.
Linda Greengrass, Bank Street College Library, New York City
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: August House (December 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874836042
• ISBN-13: 978-0874836042
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,206,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Illustrations Give New Life To An Old Tale!, December 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Big Quiet House (Paperback)

With children's books, more often than not it is the illustrations that bring the story to life. I have heard this story many times, in many formats but the illustrations in this edition are wonderful, vibrant, and with a wonderful woodcut quality. The illustrations give this old and somewhat tired story a new life! They are so wonderful that they would be perfect by themselves without the story line, framed as decorations for a child's bedroom-or any other part of the house for that matter.

If quality illustrations, and not the typical run of the mill canned cutesy drawings, are what you value when picking a child's book than this one is for you!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming and lyrical in the finest oral tradition, November 6, 2002

By 

Jennifer M. Macleod "yiddishe supermama" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Big Quiet House (Paperback)

This is one of my favourite folktales, and Forest's adaptation, with Greenstein's witty illustrations, adds to the amusement and truth behind this classic story.

In an twist from versions I've heard before, it is a village wise woman that the father in the story consults, rather than the traditional male rabbi/sage. She is just as wise as that rabbi ever was, though, leading us straight to a happy ending your kids (mine are 6 and 8) will enjoy over and over.

Forest has chosen a loose, semi-rhyming scheme which is soothing but never predictable or "doggerel-ish." And the ending, though it IS predictable, is delightful when it comes, as this beleaguered "baalabos" (homeowner) is finally able to get some rest.