When a child is asked to "Please, be quiet!" they sit silent ... and
their imagination sweeps them away on a breathtaking journey.
Through the window, the child can hear the trees breathe and watches
them sway back and forth as they begin to dance. Then bears join in,
accompanied by the child on their drum, making so much noise they wake
up a dragon! The dragon's smoky breath fills the sky, and the wind forms
a knight on a steed that gallops through the stars. The child's
adventure continues, as one wonderful flight of fancy leads to the next,
from pirates to mermaids to whales, until they find themselves sitting
silent once again among the trees.
Jean E. Pendziwol has written a charming story-poem that looks at
silence and stillness as an opportunity for the imagination and
creativity to flourish. Carmen Mok's magical illustrations flow from one
spread to the next like animation, in a palette inspired by vintage
printmaking.
Key Text Features
dialogue
illustrations
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language
Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major
events in a story.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between
illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a
story an illustration depicts).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3
Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key
details.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters,
setting, or events.
