School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-In this ode to the seasons, the sights and sounds of a picturesque country village are artfully evoked. Under the summer sun, "Leaves rustle, hammocks sway. Splish, splash, children play." In autumn, "Pumpkins ripen, quick, quick. Apples, corn-pick, pick." During winter, "Crunch, crunch, boots clomp. Grown-ups shovel, children romp./Skaters spin, skiers glide. Zip, zoom, slip, slide." When spring arrives, "Pop, pop, bulbs sprout. Leaves grow, flowers shout." Jay's crackled-varnish paintings have a nostalgic, folk-art quality. The rhyming, onomatopoeic text wraps around the busy scenes, and the words and art together provide a smooth transition between the seasons: "summer's gone" is illustrated with a swarm of insects buzzing off the page. An appended "can you see" game encourages close examination of the changing landscapes. Children will be inspired to "listen, listen" in their own environments.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Although Gershator (Kallaloo!) and Jay (1 2 3: A Child's First Counting Book; reviewed Sept. 3) aren't entirely in sync in this sound-driven journey through the seasons, it hardly matters, as Jay's magical and occasionally eerie crackle-glaze oil paintings furnish a visual feast. The text is built around a series of rhyming, gentle directives to attune one's ears: "Listen, listen... summer's gone. Good-bye insects, autumn's come.... Honk, honk, geese call. / Swish, swish, leaves fall." But while Jay picks up on some of Gershator's visual cues, her pictures are more about fantastic versions of small-town life: geese flying overhead exude a Hitchcockian menace, and two cats toasting their paws before a winter's fire look so plump and sated that one wonders if maybe dinner consisted of their human owners. It sounds rather bizarre, but the richness and detail of Jay's universe will utterly captivate children. Ultimately, the real journey in this book is less about seasons and sounds than where Jay's imagination takes her and her audience. Ages 4-9. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In a spiritual and aesthetic companion to Jay's beautiful Picture This (2004), the artist's work pairs with Gershator's simple, evocative rhyming imagery to conduct viewers on a walk around a small town as seasons change. Jay's stylized pictures, with the texture of ancient frescos, are a window into a world in which the buzz of an insect and the whoosh of the wind lend surprising emotion. Illustrations filled with snowmen, anthropomorphized animals, and people running through a leaf-swept field will make children long to discover what is just over a hill or around the next bend. Capturing a summer idyll reading in a hammock with the same care as a warm evening by the fireplace, Jay invests each image with both joy and melancholy. This jewel of a book will draw children back again and again.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2007 Booklist
