The Sun Is So Quiet

by Nikki Giovanni, Ashley Bryan (Illustrator)

Overview

Quiet . . .
like a quilt on a feather bed . . .
and frost on the window . . .
we write our names knowing . . .
the sun will melt them off

But the sun is so quiet . . .
that we don't care we smile
—from Connie by Nikki Giovanni

The quiet and noisy, wintery and sometimes sunny poems in The Sun Is So Quiet will always make you smile. Nikki Giovanni describes riding rainbows, tiptoeing through strawberry patches, licking chocolaty fingers, snuggling under covers, and many other wonderful childhood moments. Ashley Bryan's warmest, most colorful illustrations make each page look like a bright, beaming smile.

Together, they have created a collection that you can linger over like a peppermint candy cane or enjoy as quickly as a snowflake melts on your nose.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250046697
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,152,124
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nikki Giovanni is the author of Lincoln and Douglass,Spin a Soft Black Song, The Sun Is So Quiet, and the Caldecott Honor Book Rosa. Her autobiography Gemini was a finalist for the National Book Award, and several of her books have received NAACP Image Awards. She was the first recipient of the Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, and has been awarded the Langston Hughes Medal for poetry.

Ashley Bryan (1923-2022) was a multi-award-winning children’s book author and illustrator with several Coretta Scott King Awards, a Newbery Honor, and a Children’s Literature Legacy Award (formerly the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award) among his honors. Named one of New York Public Library’s Literary Lions in 2008, he also taught art at such institutions as Dalton School, Philadelphia College of Art, Queens College, and Dartmouth College.

Telling stories of African folklore and the African-American experience for more than sixty years, his books include Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum, Beautiful Blackbird, Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life and Infinite Hope: A Black Artist’s Journey from World War II to Peace. He also contributed his collage art to Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Nikki Giovanni’s The Sun Is So Quiet (a Parents’ Choice Award-winner), and Langston Hughes’s Carol of the Crown King: Nativity Poems among many others.

Editorial Reviews

The bold, fluid lines of the gouache and tempera compositions make for a particularly eye-catching volume, just right for reeling in the read-aloud crowd and introducing them to the joys of poetry.” —Publishers Weekly

“Simple poems by the famous poet Nikki Giovanni are paired beautifully with colorful drawings that will pull the young reader into their magic. . . . A lovely first book of poems.” —Children's Literature

“The brilliant yellows, the vibrant patchwork quilts, and the shapeshifting snowflakes provide a visual feast.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Giovanni (The Genie in the Jar) and Bryan (What a Morning!) form a fruitful partnership in this ebullient collection of 13 poems. Whatever Giovanni's topic, her poetry builds on an underlying exuberance: of cold-weather preparations, she writes, "Bears store fat/ chipmunks gather nuts/ and I collect books/ for the coming winter"; she describes little boys as "Missing teeth skinned elbows/ Always/ Stinky sticky slippery/ Sweaty and Sweet." That joy is reflected in the warmth and vigor of Bryan's radiant, rainbow hues and stylized designs. The poems hover like butterflies, darting in to make their point and then fluttering off. Some, like the bedtime poem "Covers," are short and sweet, some are contemplative ("Connie"), while others are imagistic, as in her ode to snowflakes in the e.e. cummings-esque "Winter Poem" ("i squeezed them and they became/ a spring rain and i stood perfectly/ still and was a flower"). The bold, fluid lines of the gouache and tempera compositions make for a particularly eye-catching volume, just right for reeling in the read-aloud crowd and introducing them to the joys of poetry. Ages 4-up. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 3-5-There is an uneven contrast in these 13 poems, 12 of which have been previously published. They leave readers cold or hot, not only by their content but by their strength of imagery. The last poem reads like a shared stream of consciousness but is excitingly vivid in its imagery and succeeds in evoking the concept of quiet. The poet loves to include unlikely twists-a child prepares for winter by storing up books, the transformation from snowflake to rain to flower, the prickled pickle tongue-twister poem, and endless references to kissing. "The Reason I Like Chocolate" brings a sense of personal involvement to all who read it. But fairies in the sky for the post-Apollo generation-too cute! There is nothing quiet about the gouache and tempera paint illustrations-they are brilliant, almost bouncing off the page regardless of the temperament of the poem. The brilliant yellows, the vibrant patchwork quilts, and the shapeshifting snowflakes provide a visual feast, as if at times trying to bring life to the words. Reserve this one for well-stocked collections.-Ronald Jobe, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

School Library Journal

Scribblings on paper burst into life with the music of the human voice--poetry! Giovanni’s whimsical collection of poetry for young children sings under Staunton’s slow and lilting reading. She pays careful attention to the details of pacing, intonation and inflection, where so much of the meaning of poetry lies when it’s read aloud. Children will relish the opportunity to lie back and create images of frogs courting, quilts airing on the line, snowflakes waltzing and bees flirting. Listeners will easily memorize the poems heard here. Poetry-loving families will enjoy this recording as much as teachers. T.B. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

MAY 98 - AudioFile