My Father Knows the Names of Things

by Jane Yolen, Stephane Jorisch (Illustrator)

Overview

My father knows the names of things. . . . And teaches all the names to me.

From each bird that sings, to every kind of cloud, to all of the planets, the father in this story knows the names of them all—and takes the time to impart his knowledge to his child. As they walk together outside, the father points out which mosses are the fuzziest and which insects are the buzziest, which flowers are the tallest and which beetles are the smallest. Jane Yolen's lyrical text is complemented by Stephane Jorisch's soft artwork, a pairing that is touching without being overly sentimental, which makes this the perfect choice for fathers and children to share.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416948957
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	04/27/2010
Edition description:	Repackage
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	733,858
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	510L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jane Yolen is an award-winning author who has written more than 380 books for children, including the bestseller How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? and the 1988 Caldecott Medal winner Owl Moon. She is known for her beautiful poetry, picture books, fairy tales, novels, and nonfiction, and has even been called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America” (Newsweek). She lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Visit her at JaneYolen.com.

Stephane Jorisch has illustrated a number of picture books, including Suki's Kimono by Chieri Uegaki; I Remember Miss Perry by Pat Brisson; The Real Story of Stone Soup by Ying Chang Compestine; and Footwork: The Story of Fred and Adele Astaire by Roxane Orgill, which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly.

Editorial Reviews

While cheerful, this book is also a memorial to Yolen's late husband. Freely drawn by Jorisch in pen and watercolor, an effortlessly confident father guides his mop-headed child through a series of adventures. On an amusement ride, he points out astrological marvels, and their travels often center on the natural world (“He knows which mosses are the fuzziest,/ He knows which insects are the buzziest”). Yolen's easeful rhymes and Jorisch's warm illustrations craft a bighearted tribute to fathers' seemingly infinite capacities for information—and their willingness to share it. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 1—This paean to fatherhood is not really a story but rather a list of all of the things the narrator's father knows, ending with, "He points out everything we see/And teaches all the names to me." It is simply a poetic love song and as such could be very effective. Unfortunately, the rhyme scheme is occasionally uneven. While lines like "My father knows the names of things,/Each different sort of bell that rings," work fine, they are followed by "And stones,/And knows the names of planets,/Stars,/And even human bones." The mixed-media illustrations, however, are wonderful. The boy and his dad exude love and companionship as they paint walls, study bugs, and fly in fanciful airplanes together. The pictures are full of movement and whimsy, and the final scene shows the child in bed in a darkened room, dreaming, with his father looking in on him. The paintings are detailed and varied and do an impressive job of depicting the imagery in Yolen's poem.—Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT

School Library Journal

"My father knows the names of things, / Each bird that sings, / Their nicknames, too, // He knows the names of dogs / And cheese // And seven words that all mean blue." In this easy, graceful verse, a child celebrates his father's expertise. Not only does dad know "a dozen...words for night," he knows about soaps, dinosaurs, bugs and flowers. It's a sweetly clever look at the phase in childhood when the parent is still omnipotent; as such, it's uniquely disarming in a season full of lockstep rhyming couplets and unmitigated gush. Jorisch's loose, whimsical watercolors makes clear the gentle, confident command that the father exerts on the child's world. There is time enough for kids to learn their parents have feet of clay-this breath of fresh air is just right until then. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews