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.

I've read this story in two different story times. There's something about the sweet appeals of the mother for the animals to be quiet for her sleeping baby. It's simple in both text and illustrations but does not need much more. It is a good read to introduce younger children to other cultures.

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.

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.

This poetic story is wonderful to read to children just before bedtime. In the story, the mother confronts different animals to try and get them to be quiet. Her baby is sleeping and she does not want the animals to wake the baby up. As the story continues, the animals get larger and larger. In the very beginning, she asks the mosquito to quiet down so it wouldn't wake the baby and then the very last animal she asks to quiet down is a giant elephant. In the end, after all of the animals fall asleep, mom falls asleep too. However, the mother went through all of that work only for the reader to find that the only one awake was actually the baby. This is an adorable and creative story to share with little ones. This is a Thai Lullaby and show more the illustrations and characters are set in Thailand. show less