Mad Summer Night's Dream [Hardcover]

Ruth Brown (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up

Beloved author-illustrator Ruth Brown offers an intriguing interpretation of a traditional playground nonsense rhyme. Readers are drawn into a bewildering place where nothing is quite as it seems: birds blossom, flowers sing, and two cats-back to back-stare each other down. But how can this be? Anything can happen in the topsy-turvy world of dreams, and this wildly meandering dream-story is no exception.

Readers will find their tongues twisting and minds bending as they explore the puzzling wordplay, while the beautiful and mysterious illustrations offer a delicious visual feast. In a mad and crazy world where snow falls in midsummer, you never know what's going to happen next!

Ruth Brown is known for her watercolor-and-acrylic paintings of animals, children, and the English countryside. She is the popular illustrator of many picture books for children, including The Shy Little Angel, Toad, The Ghost of Greyfriar's Bobby, Ben's Christmas Carol, and Cry Baby (all Dutton).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Visions of oxymorons dance in a girl's head in this madcap rhyme of nocturnal adventures. Right from its slightly skewed beginningA"One midsummer night in winter/ when snow lay on the ground"Athe story turns everything upside-down and inside-out. Flowers sing and birds bloom while two cats face off to fight on a bridge, "staring at each other/ while sitting back to back." Brown's soft-textured, pale-hued watercolors keep the disorientation upbeat, yet casts foreboding shadows over parts of the story. She captures the distinct dreamlike quality of watching oneself from above in images such as, "I went down to the cellar/ to look from an upstairs room"; a dungeon scene shows Escher-like stairs leading downward and downward around a dark pit only to end up at the door, where they begin. And when three stone monkeys (of the humorous see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil variety) leap to life in order to referee a fight between the two cats, the illustration's gray palette is more edgy than dreamy. Replete with common feelings of falling, climbing and familiar characters in strange situations, this dream sequence will resonate with young readers. Because all ends believably (the girl wakes when she falls in the dream) and well (the two cat opponents from the dream nuzzle together on the bed), children will likely laugh with relief at the conclusion. Ages 3-7. (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-With a traditional playground nonsense rhyme as the text, Brown's hallmark watercolors show a fantastic world in which nothing is as it should be. "One midsummer night in winter,/when snow lay on the ground," a young girl gets out of bed and explores her surroundings, where upstairs rooms are in the cellar, the sun is shining brightly, and birds bloom and flowers sing. Off in the distance, two cats prepare to fight, and a blind stone monkey (part of a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil trio) volunteers to referee. When the girl awakens in the morning, hints of her nighttime adventure can be found in the contents of her room (e.g., a statue of the monkeys and two cats curled up on her bed). Double-page spreads and rhyming text make this an ideal read-aloud. The obvious contradictions encourage a discussion of logic versus the absurd. Though based on a slight premise, this is an enjoyable, well-illustrated frolic that will delight and involve children.
Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1st US edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525460101
• ISBN-13: 978-0525460107
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,361,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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