Good Night, Gorilla

Good Night, Gorilla

Good Night, Gorilla

Good Night, Gorilla

Paperback(Reprint)

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Say goodnight to the zany zoo animals featured in Peggy Rathmann’s Good Night, Gorilla! Children will delight in the images and sounds that seem to leap off the page of this fun bedtime book.

"Good night, Gorilla," says the zookeeper. But mischievous Gorilla isn't quite ready to go to sleep. He'd rather follow the zookeeper on his rounds and let all of the other animals out of their cages. Little night owls can sneak along with Gorilla and see who gets the last laugh in this riotous goodnight romp. Practically wordless yet full of expressive art and hilarious, adorable detail, this book from Caldecott Medal winning author Peggy Rathmann is sure to become a beloved part of children's own bedtime rituals.

ALA Notable Children's Book for 1994
Bulletin Blue Ribbon 1994
Horn Book Fanfare 1995 selection
Parenting Magazine "Best Children's Books of 1994"
New York Public Library 1995 "Children's Books 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing"


"In a book economical in text and simple in illustrations, the many amusing, small details, as well as the tranquil tome of the story, make this an outstanding picture book." —The Horn Book, starred review

“The amiable cartoon characters, vibrant palette, and affectionate tone of the author’s art recall Thatcher Hurd’s cheerful illustrations. Delightful.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A clever, comforting bedtime story." —School Library Journal, starred review

"Jaunty four-color artwork carries the story and offers more with every look." —Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780698116498
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date: 05/01/2000
Series: Picture Puffin Books Series
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 40
Sales rank: 24,476
Product dimensions: 8.44(w) x 6.94(h) x 0.13(d)
Lexile: BR-999L (what's this?)
Age Range: 3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Peggy Rathmann is the author of a number of books for children, including the Caldecott Medal winning Officer Buckle & Gloria and the highly acclaimed Good Night, Gorilla. Ms. Rathmann lives and works in San Francisco with her husband, John Wick. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read an Excerpt

Good night, Gorilla


By Peggy Rathmann

G. P. Putnam's Sons

Copyright © 1994 Peggy Rathmann
All right reserved.

ISBN: 0-399-23003-3


Chapter One

Good night, Gorilla.

Good night, Elephant.

Good night Hyena.

Good night, Giraffe.

Good night, Armadillo.

Good night, dear.

Good night.

Good night.

Good night.

Good night.

Good night.

Good night

Good night.

Good night, zoo.

Good night, dear.

Good night.

Good night, GorilLa.

Zzzz.

Good night, Lion.

(Continues...)



Excerpted from Good night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann Copyright © 1994 by Peggy Rathmann. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. 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. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Interviews

Caldecott-medalist Peggy Rathmann was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in the suburbs with two brothers and two sisters.

"In the summer we lolled in plastic wading pools guzzling Kool-Aid. In the winter we sculpted giant snow animals. It was a good life."

Ms. Rathmann graduated from Mounds View High School in New Brighton, Minnesota, then attended colleges everywhere, changing her major repeatedly. She eventually earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of Minnesota.

"I wanted to teach sign language to gorillas, but after taking a class in signing, I realized what I'd rather do was draw pictures of gorillas."

Ms. 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.

"I spent the first three weeks of my writing class at Otis Parsons filching characters from my classmates' stories. 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. Eureka! 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."

The resulting book, Ruby the Copycat, earned Ms. Rathmann the "Most Promising New Author" distinction in Publishers Weekly's 1991 annual Cuffie Awards. 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.

"When I was little, the highlight of the summer was running barefoot through the grass, in the dark, screaming. 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."

That story, however, was only nineteen pages long, and everyone agreed that the ending was a dud. 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.

"We have a videotape of my mother chatting in the dining room while, unnoticed by her or the cameraman, the dog is licking every poached egg on the buffet. 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."

Ms. Rathmann lives and works in San Francisco, in an apartment she shares with her husband, John Wick, and a very funny bunch of ants.

copyright © 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.
Caldecott-medalist Peggy Rathmann was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up in the suburbs with two brothers and two sisters.

"In the summer we lolled in plastic wading pools guzzling Kool-Aid. In the winter we sculpted giant snow animals. It was a good life."

Ms. Rathmann graduated from Mounds View High School in New Brighton, Minnesota, then attended colleges everywhere, changing her major repeatedly. She eventually earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of Minnesota.

"I wanted to teach sign language to gorillas, but after taking a class in signing, I realized what I'd rather do was draw pictures of gorillas."

Ms. 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.

"I spent the first three weeks of my writing class at Otis Parsons filching characters from my classmates' stories. 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. Eureka! 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."

The resulting book, Ruby the Copycat, earned Ms. Rathmann the "Most Promising New Author" distinction in Publishers Weekly's 1991 annual Cuffie Awards. 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.

"When I was little, the highlight of the summer was running barefoot through the grass, in the dark, screaming. 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."

That story, however, was only nineteen pages long, and everyone agreed that the ending was a dud. 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.

"We have a videotape of my mother chatting in the dining room while, unnoticed by her or the cameraman, the dog is licking every poached egg on the buffet. 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."

Ms. Rathmann lives and works in San Francisco, in an apartment she shares with her husband, John Wick, and a very funny bunch of ants.

copyright © 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.

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