Caldecott-medalist Peggy Rathmann was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in the suburbs with two brothers and two sisters. In the winter we sculpted giant snow animals. It was a good life. Rathmann graduated from Mounds View High School in New Brighton, Minnesota, then attended colleges everywhere, changing her major repeatedly. She eventually earned a B. Rathmann studied commercial art at the American Academy in Chicago, fine art at the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis, and children's-book writing and illustration at the Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. Finally, the teacher convinced me that even a beginning writer can create an original character if the character is driven by the writer's most secret weirdness. A little girl with a passion for plagiarism! I didn't want anyone to know it was me, so I made the character look like my sister. In 1992 she illustrated Bootsie Barker Bites for Barbara Bottner, her teacher at Otis Parsons. A homework assignment produced an almost wordless story, Good Night, Gorilla, inspired by a childhood memory. We played kick-the-can, and three-times-around-the-house, and sometimes we just stood staring into other people's picture windows, wondering what it would be like to go home to someone else's house. Two years and ten endings later, Good Night, Gorilla was published and recognized as an ALA Notable Children's Book for 1994. The recipient of the 1996 Caldecott Medal, Officer Buckle and Gloria, is the story of a school safety officer upstaged by his canine partner. The next scene shows the whole family at the breakfast table, complimenting my mother on the delicious poached eggs. The dog, of course, is pretending not to know what a poached egg is. The first time we watched that tape we were so shocked, we couldn't stop laughing. I suspect that videotape had a big influence on my choice of subject matter. Rathmann lives and works in San Francisco, in an apartment she shares with her husband, John Wick, and a very funny bunch of ants. Good night, Gorilla By Peggy Rathmann G. Putnam's Sons Copyright © 1994 Peggy Rathmann All right reserved. ISBN: 0-399-23003-3 Chapter One Good night, Gorilla. Good night Good night. Excerpted from Good night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann Copyright © 1994 by Peggy Rathmann. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. Caldecott-medalist Peggy Rathmann was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in the suburbs with two brothers and two sisters. In the winter we sculpted giant snow animals. It was a good life. Rathmann graduated from Mounds View High School in New Brighton, Minnesota, then attended colleges everywhere, changing her major repeatedly. She eventually earned a B. Rathmann studied commercial art at the American Academy in Chicago, fine art at the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis, and children's-book writing and illustration at the Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. Finally, the teacher convinced me that even a beginning writer can create an original character if the character is driven by the writer's most secret weirdness. A little girl with a passion for plagiarism! I didn't want anyone to know it was me, so I made the character look like my sister. In 1992 she illustrated Bootsie Barker Bites for Barbara Bottner, her teacher at Otis Parsons. A homework assignment produced an almost wordless story, Good Night, Gorilla, inspired by a childhood memory. We played kick-the-can, and three-times-around-the-house, and sometimes we just stood staring into other people's picture windows, wondering what it would be like to go home to someone else's house. Two years and ten endings later, Good Night, Gorilla was published and recognized as an ALA Notable Children's Book for 1994. The recipient of the 1996 Caldecott Medal, Officer Buckle and Gloria, is the story of a school safety officer upstaged by his canine partner. The next scene shows the whole family at the breakfast table, complimenting my mother on the delicious poached eggs. The dog, of course, is pretending not to know what a poached egg is. The first time we watched that tape we were so shocked, we couldn't stop laughing. I suspect that videotape had a big influence on my choice of subject matter. Rathmann lives and works in San Francisco, in an apartment she shares with her husband, John Wick, and a very funny bunch of ants. Caldecott-medalist Peggy Rathmann was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in the suburbs with two brothers and two sisters. In the winter we sculpted giant snow animals. It was a good life. Rathmann graduated from Mounds View High School in New Brighton, Minnesota, then attended colleges everywhere, changing her major repeatedly. She eventually earned a B. Rathmann studied commercial art at the American Academy in Chicago, fine art at the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis, and children's-book writing and illustration at the Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles. Finally, the teacher convinced me that even a beginning writer can create an original character if the character is driven by the writer's most secret weirdness. A little girl with a passion for plagiarism! I didn't want anyone to know it was me, so I made the character look like my sister. In 1992 she illustrated Bootsie Barker Bites for Barbara Bottner, her teacher at Otis Parsons. A homework assignment produced an almost wordless story, Good Night, Gorilla, inspired by a childhood memory. We played kick-the-can, and three-times-around-the-house, and sometimes we just stood staring into other people's picture windows, wondering what it would be like to go home to someone else's house. Two years and ten endings later, Good Night, Gorilla was published and recognized as an ALA Notable Children's Book for 1994. The recipient of the 1996 Caldecott Medal, Officer Buckle and Gloria, is the story of a school safety officer upstaged by his canine partner. The next scene shows the whole family at the breakfast table, complimenting my mother on the delicious poached eggs. The dog, of course, is pretending not to know what a poached egg is. The first time we watched that tape we were so shocked, we couldn't stop laughing. I suspect that videotape had a big influence on my choice of subject matter. Rathmann lives and works in San Francisco, in an apartment she shares with her husband, John Wick, and a very funny bunch of ants. Unaware that a gorilla has stolen his keys, a zookeeper wishes all the animals good-night and sets off for home. A troupe of newly freed beasts follow the sleepy keeper back to his house and into his bed. When the keeper's wife wakes to wish her husband good-night, many good-night wishes come back to her from out of the dark! Universally understandable subject matter and a narrative conveyed almost entirely through pictures mark this as an ideal title for beginners. A zookeeper makes his nightly rounds, bidding good night to a gorilla, a lion, a giraffe and so on. He doesn't know that the gorilla has procured his keys and is unlocking each animal's cage; a jungly crowd files quietly behind the keeper as he walks home and crawls into bed. Some details prove questionable for example, one overdrawn visage of Mrs. Zookeeper seems blurry, particularly because she's rendered with a few simple lines elsewhere , yet these considerations take a back seat to Rathmann's comic exuberance. Peggy Rathmann's Good Night, Gorilla returns as a hefty, oversize board book. PreS-Gr 1-A mischievous little gorilla lifts the zoo keeper's keys on the first page of this sparely worded picture book. The brightly colored illustrations basically tell the entertaining story as the gorilla tags along behind the man, gleefully freeing all of the other animals, who then follow him single file into his neat little house. It is his unruffled wife who, without disturbing her sleepy husband, calmly returns the creatures to their cages. Even she, however, does not notice the wily gorilla, who, still in possession of the keys, returns to the house, slips into the big bed, and curls up contentedly between the people for the night. A clever, comforting bedtime story. We got this book for my then 14-month old son. But he LOVES this book, and it is still one of his bedtime favorites several months later. He identifies the animals, and I can make the story unique each time because of the flexible nature of the story. The pictures are engaging and there are many little details in the illustrations that always draw his interest. Good Night Baby Dragons features mountain dragons, coastal dragons, underwater dragons, cave dragons, Chinese dragons, fire-breathing dragons, giant dragons, tiny dragons, chameleon dragons, hatchlings, family dragons, sleepy dragons, and more. Young readers will be dazzled by this fantasy board book...
