Window (Big Books) [Paperback]

Jeannie Baker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Big Books

A big book version of this wordless, visually compelling look at our changing environment, featured on a government reading list for schools. A mother and baby look through a window at a view of wilderness and sky as far as the eye can see. With each page, the boy grows and the scene changes. At first, in a clear patch of forest, a single house appears. A few years pass and there is a village in the distance. By the time the boy is twenty, the village has developed into a city. The young man gets married, has a child of his own and moves to the country, where father and child look through the window of their new home at the undeveloped wilderness outside. Illustrated with elaborate and gorgeous collage constructions, Window is a wordless picture book that speaks volumes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The creator of Where the Forest Meets the Sea offers another warning about the environment--somewhat didactically--in this wordless picture book. Each spread features the window of Sam's room, from which the reader can see the landscape being destroyed as Sam grows up--forest and animals are replaced by neighbors and houses, factories are built, graffiti is scribbled on walls and other problems indigenous to populous cities appear. At the end of the book Sam holds up his baby to a new window where the tree-filled landscape contains an ominous sign advertising a new subdivision. "By the year 2020," Baker says in a concluding note, "no wilderness will remain on our planet, outside that protected in national parks and reserves." Her distinctive collages are extraordinary in their complexity, but children will need an adult to explain how, "by understanding and changing the way we personally affect the environment, we can make a difference." All ages.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1 Up-- A mother, holding her newborn son, gazes out the window of his room at lush vegetation, tropical birds, a pond, a kangaroo. Ten double-page illustrations following show the development--during a 20-year period--of the area outside the window. As Sam (the baby) grows older, the land is cleared, a road is built, then a farm. A housing development goes up, then takes over a hill that was once green with lush growth. Development becomes suburb, then city, complete with billboards, high-rises, noise pollution, litter, and overpopulation. Sam marries and moves to a new house in the country, where the final window scene shows him, holding his baby, staring at a sign announcing, "House Blocks For Sale". Words are unnecessary, as Baker's carefully rendered collage scenes explicitly detail the situation. Varying symbolic objects on Sam's windowsill (and the cracking and peeling of paint on the wall) add to the book's message. Baker's meticulous collages, formed from natural materials, clay, fabric, and real hair, are so detailed that they require many viewings. A final, short author's note explains the inspiration for the book: ". . .by understanding and changing the way we personally affect the environment, we can make a difference." This unusual, exceptionally well-crafted picture book might be a good way to begin. --Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Walker Childrens Paperbacks (November 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0744594871
• ISBN-13: 978-0744594874
• Product Dimensions: 17.7 x 11.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,264,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a book depicting urban sprawl, an excellent lesson in pictur, April 4, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Taylors Falls. MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Window (Library Binding)

This is an excellent wordless picture book that depicts urban sprawl from outside and inside a boys bedroom window. It is appropriate for children of all ages and can prompt some great discussions on environmental topics. It is poinant without any preachiness. This would be an excellent book to introduce an environmental education lesson!!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story Without Word, March 7, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Window (Library Binding)

Window was an absolutely amazing! I just read it today; never did I know a picture book could be so amazing. It's about this kid who starts off as a baby and as he gets older he sees how the world around him is changing. Changing for the worst. The book basically emphasizes how humans can effect the world in such a short time. It was a very, somewhat, moving story. Jeannie really did a good job with this book. This book puts true meaning to that saying "pictures are worth 1000 words."

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another favorite!, March 12, 2001

By 

Nancy Kaye "reader_in_wi" (Sussex, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Window (Library Binding)

My children LOVED this book! It has no words, but each page is a view from a boys window in his house, from birth to when he starts a family of his own! It shows the changes in the area where he lives. I loved having my children tell me from one page/view to the next what had changed looking through the window. It also lends itself to having children make up their own story and dialog for the characters seen.