Twilight Comes Twice (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Kate Kiesler (Illustrator) "Twice each day a crack opens between night and day..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2. In spare, poetic prose, Fletcher describes the twilight of mornings and evenings, those two brief times of day that often seem to have magical qualities. He personifies dawn and dusk and uses images and metaphors to evoke their special qualities and events. The full- and double-paged oil paintings depict a suburban community. A young girl and her dog wander through the scenes, adding interest even though they are never mentioned in the text. Various shades of green, orange, and brown are used effectively to show how the colors of things are transformed by twilight. The personification of dawn and dusk seems strained, and the metaphors are sometimes more distracting than illuminating, e.g., dusk "pours/the syrup of darkness/into the forest" and "hisses on the sprinklers." The pictures speak more clearly than the words. Charlotte Zolotow's When the Wind Stops (HarperCollins, 1995) and Jonathan London's I See the Moon and the Moon Sees Me (Viking, 1996) successfully use art and text to convey a sense of the wonder of the natural world.?Virginia Golodetz, St. Michael's College, Winooski, VT
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A quietly alluring mood piece that focuses on the twilight times when ``night and day stand whispering secrets before they go their separate ways'' at dawn and dusk. Fletcher (Ordinary Things, p. 460, etc.) finds impressionistic images--``Dusk pours the syrup of darkness into the forest'' and ``dawn erases the stars from the blackboard of night''--that Kiesler makes concrete, by including in her lush, light-drenched paintings a girl and a dog who witness the topical observations of the text. The exploration of how these transitory periods affect the lives of people--from children playing in the park to fishermen casting out in the fading light, from commuters to the girl's family, setting the breakfast table--is achieved through an inclusive sensory range, from dusk's fireflies that swim through air to write ``bright messages in secret code,'' to dawn's smell of doughnuts outside the bakery. Words and art coalesce into an invitation to readers to move beyond the page and into their own explorations of twilight. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books (October 20, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395848261
• ISBN-13: 978-0395848265
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,462 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( F ) > Fletcher, Ralph
  #12 in	Books > Children's Books > Basic Concepts > Time

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating and picturesque, July 21, 1999

By A Customer

This book was introduced to me in a Teaching Language Arts class in college and I have since fallen in love with it. Ralph Fletcher's vivid descriptions bring his words to life and puts the reader right within his story. Through his use of words, readers can easily paint the picture of twighlight and experience it first hand. This book is excellent for teaching children about descriptive writing and the use of vivid images within their writing. A must have book that is enjoyable for all ages!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gentle and calming beautiful illustrations with poetic prose, October 30, 2000

By	christinemm - The Thinking Mother (Connecticut, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

A story set in a suburban neighborhood with a girl and her dog doing various activities as the sun rises or sets. The first part of the book is about dusk and the second part is about dawn. The text is poetic and beautiful. The text is on one page and the illustrations are on the other page; this is a larger sized hardcover book. The illustrations are beautiful paintings, all with the special hues of dusk or dawn. Some of the scenes are: the girl and dog playing in a sprinkler while bats fly overhead and fireflies fly at their feet, two fisherman on the shore of a lake, and the girl and dog taking a walk through the woods at dawn. The poetic nature of the text is rarely found in modern children's books and is a joy to read. "When the sky is full and singing with stars you know that twilight has given way to true night." This is a gentle and calming book to read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Twilight Comes Twice, October 22, 2002

A Kid's Review

I recommend this book for 5-10 year oids because I think people who like poetry should read this book. I liked ho a girl made dawn and night sound beautiful I thik this book is great and you might like it to.