Come out, come out! [Unknown Binding]

Pat Lowery Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2004

Hildy is hiding again. This time she will not come out. This time they'll be sorry. This time they will never find her.
Every child-and every parent-can instantly recognize this simple story. But, as Hildy knows, hide and seek can be more than just a game. It's knowing that sometimes the best way to be noticed is to disappear altogether. And even more than being found, it's sometimes being missed that matters most. With fun, colorful artwork by the illustrator of Chance and an ending that will leave readers smiling, Come Out, Come Out! is a universal story of a child who feels underappreciated, and of the family who knows just how to fix it.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2–Hildy is hiding outside in a leaf pile while the rest of her family search for her in places both possible–in the shower, under the bed–and impossible–in the clouds or curled up in Dad's book. While this may sound like a fun, extended game of hide-and-seek, what readers learn is that Hildy isn't playing–she's upset. The family members are by turns cajoling, apologetic, and solicitous until she is discovered and brought back into the fold with tickles and kisses and hugs. The book ends with a fit of giggles. The ideas here are inventive, but the text is labored and occasionally overly dramatic. The story gets a bit bogged down by the repetition, and readers become desensitized to Hildy's very real emotions as the family blithely keeps up the chatter. Fortunately, the illustrations go a long way toward bringing the child's feeling to life; in fact it is through the pictures that readers will first realize that Hildy is not happy. Rather than the vibrant, bright flow of color of the domestic scenes, her leafy cocoon is a swirl of browns and rust, highlighting her internal disquiet. She sits curled in a ball in contrast to her family's over-the-top exuberance as seen in their exaggerated, elongated movements and disheveled, searched-through house.–Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

PreS. Furious with her family, again, Hildy is hiding, and she will not come out, even though they beg, tempt, bribe, say sorry, and promise never to make her angry again. It is every fuming young preschooler's dream: the anger and the sweetness of being missed. The bright, active double-page spreads in pastel and colored pencil show the intense Hildy in her secret hiding place, but the focus is also on her loving parents and older siblings tearing the house apart and shouting their love for her on every page. They search for her in Mommy's button box, and up in the clouds, and up the chimney. Preschoolers will love the farce of the hide-and-seek game, the kisses and hugs of the final embrace, and, best of all, the power of the youngest one. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Philomel Books (2004)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0006S6YP6
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

More About the Author

From my earliest years I thought of myself as a poet and painter. As a child in Hollywood, I also acted on the radio.

At twenty, I graduated from the University of Southern California, married,and soon moved to New England. It wasn't until the youngest of our five children entered school that I began writing picture books, and in the past ten years I've gravitated to writing young adult novels as well. My books include the Reading Rainbow selection, "I Am An Artist", and the recent sequel, "I Am a Dancer". My newest historical novel is "Hidden Voices, The Orphan Musicians of Venice", published by Candlewick Press and a finalist for the Boston Author's Club 2010 Children's Book Award. It was also nominated for a Cybil Award, and was chosen for ALA's 2010 Rainbow List. My young adult novel in free verse, "The Fattening Hut", won the Boston Author's Club 2004 Julia Ward Howe Award and was a Book Sense Pick and ALA Amelia Bloomer choice. "Daughter of Winter", set in Essex, MA in 1849, is scheduled for publication in 2010, and a picture book, "The Deer Watch", is also forthcoming from Candlewick. A chapbook of my poems, "The Quiet Woman Wakes Up Shouting", is one in a series of chapbook originals published by Folly Cove Books. I teach in Lesley University's MFA program in creative writing and live and work in Gloucester, MA. My web site is www.patlowerycollins.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very funny book, May 22, 2005

By 

Cathlin C. Smith "Hildy's Inspiration" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Come Out, Come Out! (Hardcover)

This book is very funny. It has a family that says very unrealistic things while they look for Hildy. Hildy is a typical 5 year old who has very STRONG emotions. My son loves this book because he understands why Hildy is hiding. My son asks me to read this book everynight and has renamed it "Hildy".

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a fun hide and seek book, May 12, 2005

By 

B. Sevedge (DeForest, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Come Out, Come Out! (Hardcover)

The pictures in this book are cute. The title suggests playfulness as in a game of hide-and-seek. The text, however, made me sad for this little girl and her family. Hildy is angry at something and expresses it by hiding while her family is looking for her and pleading for her to come out. I would not read this to children for fear that they would ignore the pleas of family to come out and talk about what is wrong - whether it is feelings of being neglected or a child's selfishness in needing attention and doing something negative to have her needs met. Although the ending makes you feel there is genuine love for the child, the story is about her inability to deal with whatever family dynamics are making her miserable enough to run away and hide from her family.