Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Bayport Public Library | J 508 ERN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | J 508 ERN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Oakdale Library | J 508 ERN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 508 ERN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | J 508 ERN | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi) | J 508 ERN | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Award-winning, best-selling author and illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst's newest book celebrates young children's inquisitiveness about the world around them--and, specifically, the things found in any yard.
Author Notes
Lisa Campbell Ernst was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1957. She received a Bachelor's degree in art from the University of Oklahoma, and then won an internship as a guest editor for Mademoiselle Magazine in New York City. She has written and illustrated over twenty picture books including Stella Louella's Runaway Book, which won the Children's Choice Award in Kansas, and Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Graph paper-style backgrounds emphasize the schematic approach to nature that Campbell-Ernst uses to explain how different items and creatures-such as birds, butterflies, rocks, and dirt-that can be found in a typical backyard "work." There's a playful aesthetic in evidence, from the bright palette and friendly cut-paper artwork to the innate humor in some of the questions themselves ("How does a squirrel work?"). The various parts of the animals, plants, and objects are labeled, and brief facts about each subject dot the spreads ("Each kind of firefly has its own special pattern of flashing"). It's an elegantly designed primer to the natural world. Ages 4-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Ernst supplies very brief explanations of how various backyard items "work"; she also incorporates some humor (e.g., in the section titled "How Does a Ball Work?" we're reminded that cheese balls aren't for kicking). The conceit is better suited to some of the subjects (sprinkler, dandelion, wagon wheel) than to others (bird, rock). Cut-paper illustrations are cleanly composed and eye pleasing. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
From birds and their nests to a hose and sprinkler, this attractive informational title presents 21 familiar objects that might be found in a young reader's suburban yard. Clear, clean cut-paper illustrations in pleasingly unsaturated colors are laid out in double-page spreads on a background of colored graph paper. The minimal text is presented will in digestible bits. Acting as an example of a bird, a robin's body parts (eye, beak, feathers, etc.) are labeled, and a few fast facts (they "communicate with each other by singing," for example) are given. The range is surprisingly varied: animals such as snails, fireflies and ants; tools and toys such as a ball, a wagon and a bubble wand; dandelions, clouds and puddles; even rocks and dirt. Occasionally parts of humans are depicted; their skin colors vary. Ernst has a clear sense of what her young readers might notice and wonder about. She also helps them make connections. A caterpillar page is followed by one on a butterfly; acorn is followed by squirrel. Some, like clouds and puddles, appear on the same spread. The definitions and explanations are clear and simple, and the author sometimes suggests an activity: making a dandelion chain, catching fireflies, painting rocks, even jumping in puddles! A beguiling invitation to curious young readers and listeners to explore both the pages of the book and the world outside their doors.(Informational picture book. 4-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This attractive book looks at a habitat familiar to many children and poses 21 questions, such a. How does a squirrel work. an. How does a sprinkler work. From fireflies to dirt to ants, it presents each topic through a few sentences of text, along with several illustrations. For example, one side of the double-page spread on dandelions features a labeled picture of the plant showing leaves, roots, a bud, a flower, an open seed head, a closed seed head, and a seed, while the facing page includes illustrated comments on the windborne seeds, the opening and closing of the flowers, and the fact that rabbits eat the leaves. One child-friendly addition is an illustrated explanation of how to make a chain of dandelion flowers. Precise and pleasing, Ernst's colorful cut-paper collage illustrations offer simplified and sometimes enlarged views of topics discussed. Best of all, this unpretentious guidebook encourages curiosity and conversations about science.--Phelan, Caroly. Copyright 2010 Booklist
