The Day the Baby Blew Away [Hardcover]

Simon Puttock (Author), Cathy Gale (Illustrator)

Book Description

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

When the wind spies Mama and Papa's beautiful baby, it whisks her away down the road and across the town, causing havoc everywhere it blows. But Baby will not stop crying, even when the wind steals old Mrs. McGinty's shawl to keep her warm. Grandpa saves the day by catching the wind with his lasso and tying it up until it admits that it's sorry for what it has done and thinks of an exciting and unusual way to apologize.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1–The wind falls in love with a baby and steals her. Swooping through town with its precious loot, it is pursued by Mama and Papa until it runs into Grandpa, who lassos it and rescues his granddaughter. The wind is imprisoned in a "prickle-pine tree" until it repents, while everyone has a picnic. Gale uses a mixture of cut-paper collage, gouache, and stamps to create colorful illustrations. Her stylized characters are borrowed from the 1950s; Papa wears a cowboy bandanna and the child has a Kewpie-doll curl in the middle of her forehead. The wind is depicted as a person, but is surrounded by arrows to show the movement of the air. The layout of the text, with a curving typeface "blowing" across the page, is interesting. Unfortunately, the story's pacing is too slow and the narrative is uneven; it sometimes has the rhythm and rhyme of poetry, but then the rhymes disappear and the language takes on a proselike cadence. This inconsistency makes the book difficult to read aloud.–Jane Barrer, Washington Square Village Creative Steps, New York City
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Review

"Puttock's prose favors brisk, rollicking rhythms, and when the three piglets speak, the squeals are nearly audible."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books (June 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845070461
• ISBN-13: 978-1845070465
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,693,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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