The Quiet Way Home [Library Binding]

Bonny Becker (Author), Benrei Huang (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995 | Age Level: 5 and up

A little girl and her grandfather walk along the quieter paths which take them past a chopping hoe, the shirr of grasshoppers, and the shushing of a water sprinkler.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2?As a grandfather picks his granddaughter up from school and they decide to take The Quiet Way Home, readers are treated to a variety of contrasting visual and aural fascinations?scenery, activities, and sounds. The pair stroll down streets, through backyards, over footbridges, across fields, down paths, and to their front door, turning away from a growling dog, a roaring lawn mower, racing bikes, clanging garbage cans, honking car horns, and scolding blackbirds. They delight in kittens, gardens, honey bees, tumbling paper, and a whirring grasshopper. Finally, they join grandmother at home. Through rich, poetic language and bright, playful acrylic and colored-pencil illustrations, children are invited to share the characters' experiences. Especially beautiful are the endpapers' serene fields of fluffy white dandelions blending with a pastel-rich sky. Team this story with C.B. Christiansen's Mara in the Morning (Atheneum, 1991), Cynthia Rylant's Night in the Country (Bradbury, 1986), and Marni McGee's The Quiet Farmer (Atheneum, 1991).?Christina Dorr, Calcium Primary School, NY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 2^-5. When Grandfather fetches a small girl from school, they take the quiet way home. They hear not the loud clanging and rumbling noises, but the "dart-and-flee" of the honeybee; not the hurry-up honks of the busy road, but "the rustle scuffle scrape-a-caper / Tumbling paper" in the alley; not the roar of the lawn mower, but the chip chop of the garden hoe. Huang's bright double-page spreads in acrylic paint and colored pencil show that there's excitement and connection in uncrowded places where you can get close up to one special thing. From the physicalness of the words with their echoes and rhymes, children could go to the poetry of Valerie Worth that celebrates the joy of listening hard to what is small and strong. Hazel Rochman

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Library Binding: 1 pages
• Publisher: Bill Martin Books; 1st edition (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805035303
• ISBN-13: 978-0805035308
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #431,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true gem for your child's book collection, March 31, 2010

By 

Anonymous Bargain Hunter - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Quiet Way Home (Library Binding)

"The Quiet Way Home" by Bonny Becker, is a children's book about a daddy walking his little girl home from school. Instead of choosing the "noisy way," with lawn mowers and honking horns, they decide to take the quiet way. On their journey, we get to take in all of the sights and subtle sounds that surround them... a honeybee, kittens scratching, a tumbling piece of crumpled paper.

I cannot describe why, but between the wording of Becker's story and the colorful, happy pictures of illustrator Benrei Huang, you feel like you've entered the story, appreciating the small things in life and looking at the world through a child's eyes and ears. I think you will also enjoy the daddy/daughter love shown. Theirs is the kind of relationship that doesn't need constant conversation or frenetic activity; rather, it transcends quiet and noisy, and the reader gets to be a part of what would surely be a lifelong memory for the girl in the story... a spring day, a wonderous world, and the daddy who shares it with her.

Every time I read this book, it relaxes me and brings peace. I know that sounds odd to say, but my husband has noticed it, too. Whenever we read this book to our children, we're more relaxed at the end of it than we were before we started reading. It's a simple story and it will be one you treasure. Highly recommend.