Hush! A Thai Lullaby

Absolutely lovely. I defy a toddler to stay awake until the end, but that's all the more reason to buy (not just borrow) the book so you can read it with them while they're awake, too. I wish this were more well-known - if not for this Caldecott club I never would have discovered it.

I like that it's a creative story, written by a Thai person, depicting animals, architecture, clothing, etc., familiar to the author's childhood... but is apparently *not* based directly on a folktale and therefore requires no historical note beyond the dedication.

Don't miss the detail, on some pages, of the baby's antics!

I will look for more by both author and illustrator.

Wonderful book for bedtime!. I love the poem, with the soft rhythm of lullabies but presenting an expectation from one page to the next to find out what is the animal that is making the noise/sound that will wake up the baby who is sleeping. At the very end, even after the mom is asleep, we find out that the baby is wide awake! Illustrations are graphic and colorful, with diverse textures from cut papers. The expressiveness of the mom character makes her alive and so believable! Ink is used in few places to add accents to the illustrations.

Hush is a lyrical story, a Thai lullaby told in verse. Each page is repetitious, with a new animal making a noise that will wake the baby. The baby's mother talks to the animals, such as this exchange with a frog, "Green frog, green frog, don't come leaping. Can't you see that Baby's sleeping? Green frog, green frog, don't you cry, my baby's sleeping right nearby. Hush! Who's that sniffling in the sty?" Turning the page we discover a pig making noise and the repetition continues. The book ends with the forest quiet and the mother asleep, and then we turn the page and see the baby, wide awake and smiling. Winner of the Caldecott Honor in 1997. Holly Meade was the illustrator.

A well-deserved Caldecott Honor book, this is a story from Thailand. Rhyming phrases implore the animals to please be quiet because baby is asleep. While the phrases are repeated during each two-page spread, the animals vary. At the end of the book, we learn that the baby is wide awake!

Used for Animal Antics Baby Storytime 9/14/12. Worked pretty well - particularly when I encouraged the parents to act out the animal noises and actions with their babies. I did however skip a few pages (the duck, the monkey and the water buffalo) to make the length more appropriate. The text highlights the Thai words for animal noises and follows a pattern for each animal verse. I'd love to know if there's an actual melody floating around for this somewhere.

For older readers, the illustrations by Holly Meade are really the highlight here. Done with cut paper collage and ink, Meade's illustrations bring the Thai setting to life in earthy colors dominated by browns, oranges and reds. I love the textured look that the cut paper collages show more allow and I want to reach out and touch Meade's creations. Close observers will also notice that as Mama gets more and more distracted trying to hush the many animals, baby makes a break for it - a story told entirely through the illustrations. By the monkey spread, baby is swinging from the porch railings, but he makes it back to his hammock before Mama ever knows. We end with all the animals asleep and Mama falling into what seems to be an exhausted slumber while baby is contentedly wide awake. show less

Hush! is a beautifully illustrated bedtime book wherein a weary mother pursues the universal dream to create quiet during her child's nap. The rhyming text opens with the onomatopoeic cry of different Thai creatures, increasing from a mosquito to an elephant followed by the mother's plea that "My baby's sleeping right nearby."

The not-too-surprise ending will make readers smile if not lull its intended audience into slumber.

Hush! is a beautifully illustrated bedtime book wherein a weary mother pursues the universal dream to create quiet during her child's nap. The rhyming text opens with the onomatopoeic cry of different Thai creatures, increasing from a mosquito to an elephant followed by the mother's plea that "My baby's sleeping right nearby."

The not-too-surprise ending will make readers smile if not lull its intended audience into slumber.