This book, a poem-play, is literally made to be read aloud. The rhythm and sound of the original is what fascinates the baby most of all, — Grigory Kruzhkov, one of our best translators of English poetry, perfectly conveyed. And another secret of this book is the wonderful pictures of Helen Oxenbury.
This book, a poem-game, is literally created to be read aloud. The rhythm and sound of the original is what fascinates the baby most of all, — Grigory Kruzhkov, one of our best translators of English poetry, perfectly conveyed. And another secret of this book is the wonderful pictures of Helen Oxenbury, in which “we”, who went hunting for a terrible bear and walked through the grass (“shurch, rustle!”), Through the river (“plop, plop!”), Through forest (“crump, crack!”), turn out to be a dad and his four children, small and small less. The youngest dad is on his shoulders, the rest go on their own — each little reader, depending on age, will find an image with which he can relate himself. In a modern family, dad sometimes turns out to be an almost phantom figure — he seems to be there, but he works so much that he only sees children sleeping. The book by Michael Rosen (by the way, the father of five of his children and two adopted children) will help them become closer: to whom, if not dad, to read it in different voices and play it together with the children at home, and on a walk, and on a long journey.
PINK GIRAFFE, 34 p.