Upside Down Babies - Hardcover

Willis, Jeanne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1467734241 ISBN 13: 9781467734240

Publisher: Andersen Press USA, 2014

Synopsis

Once when the world tipped upside down,
The earth went blue and the sky went brown.
All the baby animals tumbled out of bed
And ended up with very funny mums instead...

About this title

About the Author:

Jeanne Willis was born in St. Albans and trained as an advertising copywriter at Watford College. She is now a full-time writer. She lives in North London with her husband and two children.

Adrian Reynolds was born in South Wales. After studying at Swansea College of Art and Cambridgeshire College of Art and Technology, Adrian worked at Heffers Children's Book Shop before beginning to write and illustrate his own picture books.

Review:

"When the world goes topsy-turvy, animal babies are tumbled into the wrong habitats. Told in verse, the text generally scans well. However, American readers may not be familiar with the semantic differentiation between land-dwelling tortoises and water-dwelling turtles and may wonder why the baby tortoise can't swim. Another source for confusion is the camel/polar bear pairing, 'Polar Bear landed in the desert sand./Poor Mommy Camel couldn't understand/Why he had the hump and growled a lot./There wasn't any snow. He was far too hot' Unless readers are familiar with the Briticism, they won't know that 'having the hump' means being in a bad mood, and may question if an error was made. Despite a few sticking points, the rhyme scheme is varied, and the story is short enough for read-aloud enjoyment. The boisterous illustrations feature cartoon animals shaded with a surprising depth of color that is quite beautiful, and the overall effect is bold and bright. The animals are friendly looking (except for the strange sloth), and their expressive features heighten the humor of the text. This title will be popular with the storytime crowd." ―School Library Journal

(Journal)

"When the world turns upside down and babies wind up with the wrong mothers, things get silly fast. 'Piglet went ker-plonk in a parrot's nest./ Porky and pink with no feathers on his chest./ "What a funny baby, no matter how I try,"/ Mommy Parrot said, "this chick won't fly!"' Willis's rhyming verse is jaunty, studded with nourishing words like 'drey' and 'carnivore,' and takes a delightfully light approach to teaching animal attributes." ―New York Times Book Review

(Newspaper)

"Willis and Reynolds, the team behind I'm Sure I Saw a Dinosaur and other stories, imagine a (gentle) global cataclysm that jumbles the natural order: 'Once when the world tipped upside down,/ The earth went blue and the sky went brown./ All the baby animals tumbled out of bed/ And ended up with very funny moms instead.' Willis's bouncy nursery-rhyme cadence propels readers through several funny fish-out-of-water scenarios that see a baby pig landing 'ker-plonk in a parrot's nest,' a baby lion howling 'I want meat!' when offered grass by Mommy Cow, and mutual puzzlement on the parts of Mrs. Cheetah and Mrs. Sloth, who end up with each other's slow and speedy offspring. Reynolds's characteristically exuberant illustrations revel in the comedic possibilities, from a baby polar bear's dismay at being stuck in the desert with Mommy Camel to a mother owl's early morning shock when Baby Rooster starts crowing. A second out-of-the-blue occurrence sets things right, but Willis and Reynolds conclude with a punchline that will tickle any readers who already think of their younger siblings as being part ape." ―Publishers Weekly

(Journal)

About this edition

• Publisher: Andersen Press USA
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1467734241
• ISBN 13: 9781467734240
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Reynolds Adrian