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Overview
Susie and Roberto are putting on a puppet show and all of their friends have come to see it, including she Louie. As the show begins, Louie becomes fascinated by the smiling puppet Gussie and shouts "Hello!" in front of a silent audience. After the show, Louie goes home and dreams about Gussie. When he wakes up, he discovers that his friends have left a gift for him. This classic Ezra Jack Keats story of love and generosity is as meaningful today as when it was first published more than twenty years ago.
Susie and Roberto's puppet show is temporarily interrupted when Louis becomes fascinated by one of the puppets.
Synopsis
Susie and Roberto are putting on a puppet show and all of their friends have come to see it, including shy Louie. As the show begins, Louie becomes fascinated by the smiling puppet Gussie and shouts “Hello!” in front of a silent audience. After the show, Louie goes home and dreams about Gussie. When he wakes up, he discovers that his friends have left a gift for him. This classic Ezra Jack Keats story of love and generosity is as meaningful today as when it was first published more than twenty years ago.
Claudia Mills - Children's Literature
This reissue of Keats's 1975 title shows why Keats remains the master of capturing the simplest emotions of childhood in a beautifully recreated inner-city setting. As Susie and Roberto put on a puppet show for the neighborhood kids, Louie, who never speaks, is so fascinated by one of the puppets, a green-faced, red-nosed, clown like puppet in baby clothes, with stubby arms held up to be held, that he disrupts the show by standing up and shouting out to Gussie, "Hello! Hello!" At the end of the show, Louie grabs Gussie for a hug and is persuaded only with difficulty to let go. Finally he heads home, through dark, graffiti-covered streets, to his lonely, bare apartment, where he sits all alone on the uncarpeted floor, dreaming of Gussie and of being mocked by the others for his behavior at the performance. But then he finds that someone—presumably compassionate Susie and Roberto—has left him Gussie as a wonderful present. The spare and simple text allows Keats's luminous and expressive paintings to dominate the telling of the story. Louie's wordless joy as he rushes toward Gussie, with his arms outstretched to the waiting puppet, is heartbreakingly poignant and moving. It is hard not to have a lingering lump in the throat after this one. 2004 (orig. 1975), Puffin, Ages 3 up.
Editorials
Children's Literature
This reissue of Keats's 1975 title shows why Keats remains the master of capturing the simplest emotions of childhood in a beautifully recreated inner-city setting. As Susie and Roberto put on a puppet show for the neighborhood kids, Louie, who never speaks, is so fascinated by one of the puppets, a green-faced, red-nosed, clown like puppet in baby clothes, with stubby arms held up to be held, that he disrupts the show by standing up and shouting out to Gussie, "Hello! Hello!" At the end of the show, Louie grabs Gussie for a hug and is persuaded only with difficulty to let go. Finally he heads home, through dark, graffiti-covered streets, to his lonely, bare apartment, where he sits all alone on the uncarpeted floor, dreaming of Gussie and of being mocked by the others for his behavior at the performance. But then he finds that someone—presumably compassionate Susie and Roberto—has left him Gussie as a wonderful present. The spare and simple text allows Keats's luminous and expressive paintings to dominate the telling of the story. Louie's wordless joy as he rushes toward Gussie, with his arms outstretched to the waiting puppet, is heartbreakingly poignant and moving. It is hard not to have a lingering lump in the throat after this one. 2004 (orig. 1975), Puffin, Ages 3 up.—Claudia Mills