How to Make a Night

By Linda Ashman

Have you had a bad day?Have things been zooming out of control from the moment you set your feet on the floor this morning?Are you ready for the day to be over?No problem Just follow these... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060290323
• ISBN13: 9780060290320
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: HarperColl
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 11.0"
• Age Range: 3 to 6 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 1

Customer Reviews

That's my kinda plan!....

"Time to settle down! Time to clean the mess! Time to bring the night around so everyone can rest." -from the book Hmmmm...wonder if that'll work at naptime tomorrow? I enjoyed reading this to my daughter. I love it when I find a book that we both like to read. The illustrations are super. This is a great bedtime book! -for parents and the kids! (promise -you won't be skipping pages or shortening sentences on the sly w/this one! -You'll proudly want to read each & every word) Fun Book!

Make a night of it.

Have you ever found yourself distraught that a book that you've come to love has not received the attention and aplomb it's so obviously worthy of? Usually the books I review have been given enough accolades to keep me from feeling that they've been overlooked in some way, but upon reading, "How To Make a Night", I found myself severely disappointed with the world around me. The library branch where I work has 2 copies of this book and they do not circulate half as quickly as I would like them to. Why this is, I'm not sure. Here we have a funny, charming, sweet little book about how one deals with a particularly bad day and no one's lauded it half as much as it deserves. So laud I shall, loud and clear. The book begins with a brief overview of why the day was so bad. "Bike blew a tire / Boat sprang a leak / Scooter's in the gutter / Sneaker's in the creek". Throughout a cluttered, crazed, messy home, two shellshocked adults cling to the arms of their battered old armchair as children run haywire and cats cling to doorways. Various limbs and heads stick out of the most unlikely of places. Then, like a beacon in a mad mad world, a single girl steps atop a green chair, mop and bucket in hand. "Time to settle down / Time to clean the mess / Time to bring the night around / so everyone can rest". As she steps outside her window the world grows, if possible, even more surreal. Our young heroine lets loose a rope into space, catches the sun, and pulls it down into her skirt pocket. Then she darkens the sky, splatters some gold for stars, and creates the moon itself from a single smooth-rubbed stone. Crickets and owls are called forth and, last but not least, the house is tidied and everyone has dinner and a bath. In bed, the girl hugs her mother and father and snuggles to sleep. But lest you think that's the end of that, the book concludes with a sly, "Close your eyes and slumber soundly / You'll be busy very soon / when it's time to toss the sun up high / and haul away the moon". I do not, personally, know any five-year-olds that I'm familiar enough with to buy them presents. This is a good thing. If I did know any I'd go broke buying each and every one of them a copy of this book for their own personal use. I read a lot of children's books, being a children's librarian and all, but few of them hit me on such a personal level as this book. How can I explain? First of all, the words are great. Author Linda Ashman (who, I'm ashamed to say, I never heard of prior to this book) adds just the right amounts of wit and silliness to this poetic jumble. The words found here are outwardly simple, but they are particularly good at conjuring up original descriptors. Long silver spoons, a night chorus, a big wet mop... these are all deeply satisfying objects and groupings to read about. By the end of the tale, kids reading it will feel that they themselves could call down the sun and raise high the moon if they merely read this book