Fiction - Sports & Recreation, Fiction - Miscellaneous People, Places & Cultures, Fiction - Nature, Fiction - General & Miscellaneous, Fiction - Basic Concepts
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Overview
In Susan Gal's delightful young-concept book, a family travels up a mountain, over a bridge, and under a canopy of trees to reach their campsite in the great outdoors. A forest hike offers more opportunities to showcase words that describe spacial relationships and show young readers where they are in the world. Beside a lake! Next to a waterfall! On top of a mountain! Then after the sun slips behind the hills, they'll snuggle alongside each other and dream sweet dreams inside their tent among the trees.
Gal's pictures capture all the beauty of the natural world. And she's included a humorous cast of animal characters on a parallel journey of their own, so the art is full of funny things to spot.
This is a gem of a story for parents and teachers to share with their happy campers.
Synopsis
In Susan Gal's delightful young-concept book, a family travels "up" a mountain, "over" a bridge, and "under" a canopy of trees to reach their campsite in the great outdoors. A forest hike offers more opportunities to showcase words that describe spacial relationships and show young readers where they are in the world. "Beside" a lake! "Next to" a waterfall! "On top of" a mountain! Then after the sun slips "behind" the hills, they'll snuggle "alongside" each other and dream sweet dreams "inside" their tent "among" the trees.Gal's pictures capture all the beauty of the natural world. And she's included a humorous cast of animal characters on a parallel journey of their own, so the art is full of funny things to spot.
This is a gem of a story for parents and teachers to share with their happy campers.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Like her previous two picture books, Night Lights and Take Me for a Walk!, Gal’s third offering takes particular delight in the pleasures to be had outside, as a family of four packs up its woodie station wagon and literally heads for the hills on a camping trip. The artwork—rough charcoal shapes augmented with digital collages—is gleefully retro in its muddy palette of browns and green, the characters’ vintage outfits (hats for everyone!), and the Mary Blair quality to the friendly wildlife the family meets. The whole project has the feel of a storyboard for a mid-century filmstrip about getting back to nature. It’s also an exercise in language, as Gal uses the journey to contextualize several prepositions: “We pitch our tent among the trees and set off along the hiking trail.” Naturalism isn’t the chief goal (the toddler in the family befriends a smiling bear), yet Gal’s attention to light, especially the way it filters through the trees, and her ability to evoke the serenity of the forest result in an idealized ode to the wild green yonder. Ages 5–9. (Oct.)Children's Literature -
A family's camping trip is used to promote the concept of the preposition in word usage. From the time a young family drives "over the bridge" and "under the towering trees" to their hike among, along, around, between and over the various habitats to the top of the mountain, the preposition is featured in a naturalistic manner and is highlighted as well. The rather dark illustrations using charcoal and computer generated textures and colors give a feel of being deep in the woods. It's a cheery tale of camping adventures while reinforcing the concept of prepositions in a whole language approach. So much more interesting than memorizing a list of prepositions. Reviewer: Meredith Kiger, Ph.D.From the Publisher
Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2011:“An effervescent celebration of an overnight camping trip, with all the prepositions highlighted.”
Book Details
Published
October 11, 2011
Publisher
Random House Children's Books
Pages
40
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780375869587