Listen, Listen!
In a spiritual and aesthetic companion to Jay s beautiful Picture This (2004), the artist s work pairs withGershator s simple, evocative rhyming imagery to conduct viewers on a walk around a small town asseasons change. Jay s stylized pictures, with the texture of ancient frescos, are a window into a world inwhich the buzz of an insect and the whoosh of the wind lend surprising emotion. Illustrations filled withsnowmen, anthropomorphized animals, and people running through a leaf-swept field will make childrenlong to discover what is just over a hill or around the next bend. Capturing a summer idyll reading in ahammock with the same care as a warm evening by the fireplace, Jay invests each image with both joy andmelancholy. This jewel of a book will draw children back again and again.-Jesse Karp --Booklist, November 15, 2007PreS-Gr 3 In this ode to the seasons, the sights and sounds of a picturesque country village are artfully evoked. Under the summer sun, Leaves rustle, hammocks sway. Splish, splash, children play. In autumn, Pumpkins ripen, quick, quick. Apples, corn pick, pick. During winter, Crunch, crunch, boots clomp. Grown-ups shovel, children romp./Skaters spin, skiers glide. Zip, zoom, slip, slide. When spring arrives, ;Pop, pop, bulbs sprout. Leaves grow, flowers shout. Jay's crackled-varnish paintings have a nostalgic, folk-art quality. The rhyming, onomatopoeic text wraps around the busy scenes, and the words and art together provide a smooth transition between the seasons: summer's gone is illustrated with a swarm of insects buzzing off the page. An appended can you see game encourages close examination of the changing landscapes. Children will be inspired to listen, listen in their own environments. -- Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada --School Library Journal, December 2007