Hear That? ANNOTATION
A mother and child try to figure out the sources of the noises they hear on a stormy night.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
This rather bland dialogue between a mother and son begins in a dim living room, where a TV illuminates the remains of dinner. In the doorway to an untidy hall, the ominous words "buzz, buzz, buzz" appear. " `Ssshhh,' I said. `Hear that?' `Yes,' said Mom. `Maybe it's Daddy.' " The two investigate, but find only castoff toys and a banana peel. When the earnest narrator suggests that the buzzing could be a fly, his pert mother initiates a game, saying, "No... Hear that?" A "squeak, squeak, squeak," written in spiky black letters, emanates from the bedroom. Accompanied by their puzzled dog, the mother and son tiptoe around the house, alert to every thump, click and squish ("Maybe it's our wombat.... Or even our kangaroos!"). Novelist-turned-mom Janowitz (Slaves of New York) escalates the sequence into nonsense, then shows that the first guess was right. The child's grinning father bursts in with a dripping umbrella, and his wet appearance suggests that a storm produced the mysterious sounds. Dockray (Grimm's Grimmest) characterizes the family as wide-eyed and wholesome, and depicts a sloppy home where ants devour a leftover jelly sandwich and a walrus tumbles out of the fridge. With the possible exception of the "ginip-ginop," a bearish purple monster that fills an entire spread, the fantasy noisemakers amuse rather than frighten. This tepid tale's suspense depends on read-aloud performance, ideally on a rainy evening. Ages 5-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Children's Literature
A young boy asks his mother the title question as they sit home alone with the dog, listening to a repeated "buzz." He speculates ever more wildly about the source of a series of stranger and stranger noises, as his mother keeps saying "no." The clicking can't be a million sugar ants swarming around the strawberry jelly; the tapping can't be an army of cockroaches marching in step, and so forth. The tension rises, and the noises and the creatures keep getting wilder, until the perfectly obvious solution at the end. Dockray visualizes this bit of nonsense with cartoon-y good will. Double-page watercolor scenes depict the duo searching room by room as the noises, printed in varying letter forms, elude them. There is a naked banana seeking its skin, a wombat, a walrus in the refrigerator—lots of fun. 2001, SeaStar Books/North-South Books, $15.95 and $15.88. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz
School Library Journal
PreS-A silly onomatopoeic story with a slight mystery. A mother and son are watching television when they hear a faint buzzing sound. "Hear THAT?" asks the boy. When the woman suggests the sound might be his father returning home, the child disagrees, pointing out that, since his father "doesn't go BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ," it might be a fruit fly. Squeaks, squishes, clicks, taps, etc., are noises that could be anything to a vivid imagination, and the lad's suggestions become more and more outlandish: a mouse, a butler, a banana, a wombat, a ginip-ginop. It turns out, of course, to be Daddy, who has forgotten his keys and has been attempting to arouse the household. Large, brightly hued, computer-aided watercolors depict all the creatures the boy imagines in the act of noise-making. The double-page illustrations reveal varying perspectives, which maintain interest and show the disorder of a house in which a child lives. The repetition of sounds throughout may encourage very young children to make the various noises and suggest what they might be.-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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