Abiyoyo Returns - Softcover

Seeger, Pete; Jacobs, Paul DuBois

Softcover

ISBN 10: 068987054X ISBN 13: 9780689870545

Publisher: Aladdin, 2004

Synopsis

After Abiyoyo the giant left, the small town he had bothered grew by leaps and bounds. The boy who helped his father make Abiyoyo disappear grew older and became a father, too. The people were filled with new life and spirit. But now there are new dangers: droughts and floods. The town needs a dam before it gets washed away. And sitting right where the dam would be is a boulder too big for anyone to move. Anyone, that is, except Abiyoyo.
Father still has his courage. Grandfather still has his magic wand. And his granddaughter knows he can bring Abiyoyo back, then make him disappear. But Abiyoyo is dangerous. People think the giant will eat them. Will lots of good food and beautiful songs keep Abiyoyo happy long enough to move the boulder and once again leave the town in peace?

About this title

About the Author:

Pete Seeger is a national treasure, arguably the most influential figure in American folk music as well as an important advocate of social causes. He lives in Beacon, New York.

Paul DuBois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender are a husband and wife writing team, authors of many books for children, including the Animal Inn series; Count on the Subway; My Subway Ride; and My Taxi Ride. Paul has also cowritten four books with legendary folk musician, Pete Seeger, including Abiyoyo Returns and The Deaf Musicians. Paul and Jennifer have appeared at Lincoln Center, The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, The Virginia Festival of the Book, as well as countless schools, libraries, and museums. They live in Massachusetts.

Michael Hays has illustrated several picture books, including the sequel to Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo Returns. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

From School Library Journal:

reS-Gr 3-Fifteen years after the publication of Pete Seeger's Abiyoyo (S & S, 1986), the giant returns. This time, the townspeople are cutting down all the trees to build houses, and flooding results when the rains come. When they try to build a dam and run into a boulder nobody can move, the granddaughter of the magician responsible for Abiyoyo's previous disappearance convinces him to magic the big guy back. When the giant reappears in all his slobbery, stinking wonder, roaring for food, the townspeople rush to feed him. The little girl, in a ploy to get him to move the boulder, asks him if he is strong enough to do it, and he hurls it several hundred feet away. The villagers rejoice and everyone sings the now-famous song, faster and faster until, exhausted, the giant falls asleep. But they soon discover that Abiyoyo's feat has crushed the magic wand that would zap him away again, and the local folks must find a way to coexist peacefully with him. Seeger teaches several lessons in this clever if somewhat forced tale: the value of the environment, of sharing, and of the need to live with whatever "giants" are in one's life. Hays's colorful illustrations are just as wonderful as in the original tale, with the jagged-edged, overpowering monster oozing attitude from every pore. For those who felt it unfair of the town to zap away what they feared in the original book, this second installment will be a just and happy ending.

Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Aladdin
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 068987054X
• ISBN 13: 9780689870545
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Hays Michael