Winter Lullaby [Hardcover]

Barbara Seuling (Author), Greg Newbold (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 2 and up

As the natural world changes with winter's approach, young children worry about the creatures they see around them. Where do the ducks and other animals go? Will they find shelter from the cold? Will they be safe and warm? In Winter Lullaby, Barbara Seuling's reassuring, gentle verse and Greg Newbold's breathtaking paintings reveal what animals do to survive as winter takes hold.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As autumn turns to winter, the wind blows, the ground turns cold and the "white frost creeps," forcing animals to find protective shelter. "When the snow falls/ over the freshwater pond,/ where do the ducks go?/ Across the sky,/ southward they fly." Seuling's (The Teeny Tiny Woman) text sets up a rhythm of simple questions on one spread, answered with the turn of a page by rhyming couplets that may well lull youngsters into a participatory drowsiness. Children can repeat the easily memorized, sing-song verses in response to an adult reading the questions. Newbold's broad scope of variously lit, softly rounded rural scenesAfrom farm to forest to desert to mountain valleyAbrings soothing balm to day's end. Ages 3-6.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2-This picture book addresses the curious disappearance of nature's summertime animal population when the weather turns cold. Bees head for their hives, bats go to their caves, and birds fly south toward kinder climates. Seven animals in all, including humans, make their escape to warmth. The poetic text consistently puts forth a free-verse question ("When ice covers/the mountain lake like a crust,/where do the fish go?") followed by a rhymed-couplet answer ("They swim below,/where warm streams flow") on the next double spread. The literary qualities-subtle alliteration and assonance as well as rhyme-work well for reading aloud. A three year old may not immediately grasp that a "Breeze [blowing] the petals off the flowers" is an obvious indication of a change of season, but Newbold's illustrations explain it nicely with a pared-down realism of bold but not overly bright acrylic paintings. The artist's pallet complements the text well. Warm-tinted oranges and yellows highlight the waning summer days, while winter's tones are cool blues, whites, and grays. The landscapes depicted seem to be the same rural American countryside, but the insertion of one desert setting interrupts the regionally flavored flow. As a whole, the format seems just a bit haphazard, despite the fine words and pretty pictures.
Peg Solonika, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 2 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152014039
• ISBN-13: 978-0152014032
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 10.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,373,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A poetic and beautifully-illustrated look at winter, January 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Winter Lullaby (Hardcover)

This is the perfect book to curl up with on a cold, wintry day. Beautifully illustrated, with a minimal, poetic text, it explains in question-and-answer format how the natural world experiences the approach of winter. The lush, double-page illustrations gradually move from warm, autumnal vistas as the story begins, through to overhead views of snowy fields and icy underwater scenes, accompanied by simple explanations of how the animals in these habitats prepare for the arrival of winter. The final illustrations are of two children returning from a sledding trip on a snowy evening to their cozy, welcoming home, where their father gathers them in his lap and reads them a bedtime story by firelight. A favorite of both my daughters, ages 20 months and 4 years--and of mine.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 10 stars at least!, November 21, 1999

By 

Leslie A. Harris "Leslie in Texas" (Midlothian, Tx USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winter Lullaby (Hardcover)

This book is WONDERFUL! Each two page layout is a painting unto itself! It's so sweet in it's storytelling... the story blends so wonderously with the paintings. I can't hardly describe it. Just get it or check it out at your library.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Illustrations!, December 4, 2000

By 

Moonshopper, mom, "moonshopper" (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter Lullaby (Hardcover)

This is one of the most beautiful books we own. The words have a nice rhythm and are interesting and educational. The pictures are outstanding. When we read, my four year old son usually picks his dinosaur or truck books, but this is one I choose and he doesn't object.