The Sound of Day, the Sound of Night by Mary ONeill


The Sound of Day, the Sound of Night
Title : The Sound of Day, the Sound of Night
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0374371350
ISBN-10 : 9780374371357
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 32
Publication : Published August 11, 2003

A family gets ready to greet a new baby
As a father helps his children get ready for school, the busy sounds of day unfold:
Bus honks and bells,
Dishes and shoes,
Whirring of tires and
Crackle of news . . .
Then night falls and the sounds are different:
Wind singing,
Sometimes rain
Slapping leaves on
Windowpane . . .
But this is no ordinary day - or night. Listening to the clock tick, this family is waiting for something exciting to happen - and it does, when a new baby arrives.
Rich, playful paintings combine with lyrical language to tell a warm, vibrant story of family.


The Sound of Day, the Sound of Night Reviews


  • Andrea Librarian

    A wonderful poem with an interesting illustration story to go along. Not sure they match up exactly, but there's potential there.

  • Evan Willliamson

    As reviewed by Dennis The Baker

    Summary
    You want a summary? Here ya go: This book’s nothing but the onomatopoeic ramblings of a mind cursed with synesthesia while drinking mountain lightning from a jug laced with LSD. The shift from day to night is almost as absurd as the tonal shifts from sound to sound, like a chicken in an ass-kicking contest hosted by KFC.

    The narrative is almost as nonexistent as Bigfoot riding the Loch Ness Monster from an Illuminati meeting to an all night kegger with the friend of a friend who saw somebody die from mixing pop rocks and Coke. Each page reads like a Speak-and-Spell with Tourette Syndrome where the illustrator bet the author she could not find three things wrong with each picture. The only thing that changes in this piece is the position of the sun in the sky.

    And speaking of changing, imagine yourself in a world where a set of characters live that make Pooh Corner look like Stalingrad after the war. The blandness of how each comes across only brings helpful visions of rooms of men staring a walls expectantly waiting for the paint to melt so they would have something to do with their pathetic lives. This family is either the beginning of the most boring cult of all time or an example as to how the American family was dreamed up when our country was founded by a Revolutionary soldier that took one too many musket balls to the head.

    Hallelujah, where’s the pie?!

    Thanks, Dennis!

  • Dolly

    This is a sweet book, more poetry than prose, about a day in the life of a family; an important day when they bring a baby home from the hospital. You can sense the hectic pace and frustration of a Dad trying to keep everything orderly for the older children during the day. And you can feel the cocoon of warmth around the new baby as they welcome her home.

  • Kalynda

    I selected this book, because I thought it would connect to science concepts. Besides the main lens of day and night, it doesn't really offer that extension. However, what it does offer is quite clever. It literally focuses on all the sounds of the day, from the morning, to school, to social interactions. The same is true for night. Great use of nouns and verbs!

  • Cali

    A fun story about the daily life of a family--but a special day in which a new baby enters their family. It goes through the activities & sounds of the day, and then those of the night in a beautiful and poetic way. This was a fun book to coincide with our learning activities about night.

  • Miss Erica

    GR Level: ?

    Elementary:E ONE

    Cute book about the sounds you hear in the day and night. Written in rhyme. Cute pictures too.

  • Erica

    Cute book about the sounds you hear in the day and night. Written in rhyme. Cute pictures too.

  • Ashley Aolani Salisbury

    I loved the sounds in this book.