Have You Ever Done That?

Have you ever slept outside on a hot summer night? Sailed a boat in stormy waters? Or nursed a baby bird back to health? Maybe you've done other strange things you weren't expecting to do, or familiar things that became surprising as you did them. In this beautifully illustrated book of poetry you'll discover exciting possibilities in the events of each day and night. Every page hold a world to be explored.

Julie Larios is a poet who lives in Seattle. Her first book, On the Stairs, was done in collaboration with her sister, Mary Cornish.

Anne Hunter is the author and illustrator of many children's book, including Possum's Harvest Moon and Possum and the Peeper. She lives in Vermont.

Have you ever slept outside on a hot summer night? / Everything looks different / in the moon s strange light. So begins Have You Ever Done That?, a playful and poetic challenge to young children to observe the beauty and mystery of the world around them. Julie Larios uses soothing rhythms and whimsy to spur a child s imagination, while Anne Hunter s watercolors breathe life into the poet s words.

Publishers Weekly

"Have you ever slept outside on a hot summer night?/ Everything looks different/ in the moon's strange light" begins Larios's (On the Stairs) lyrical ode to the wonders of nature. The title acts as the volume's gently probing refrain. Without sounding preachy and with the age range of her audience firmly in mind, the author urges readers to seize the small and big opportunities that life offers. It may mean camping out on a summer night or something with bigger stakes, such as flying "out across the river/ on a rope" and then letting go, even though the water below is "deep and cold and black." Hunter's (Possum's Harvest Moon) exquisite watercolors mirror the quiet intensity and sensuality of the verse. Her artwork ranges from a double-spread landscape of towering cornstalks to a boat in a storm with the sun breaking through the clouds. The poignant portrait of a swaddled baby crow takes the text one step further, showing the adult crow after it's been nursed back to health. With subtle cross-hatching and muted colors, Hunter brings an intriguing tension to every picture and conveys the message that, for those willing to look a little harder and risk a little more, life-changing surprises and revelations await. Ages 2-6. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Anne Hunter was born in Lake Worth, Florida where she grew up accompanying her bird-watching mother into the remote woods and swamps and there beginning her own interest in natural history. She attended Earlham College and graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She paints, writes, and lives in an old farmhouse in southern Vermont with her farmer husband Andrew, one dog and eight lazy hens. Have You Ever Done That? is her ninth children's book.