Handa's Noisy Night

by Eileen Browne, Eileen Browne (Illustrator)

Overview

A cast of nocturnal creatures are the surprise stars in a funny tale about nighttime fears, set in southwest Kenya. The latest tale in the best-selling Handa series.

When Handa sleeps over at her friend Akeyo’s house, she hears lots of strange sounds in the night: snorts, chattering, rattling, squeaks, slurps, wails, a big thud. Akeyo says it’s just her family, laughing, talking, playing music, riding a bike, drinking their bedtime milk. Or maybe the baby crying. Or a door slamming. But is she right? Young readers will be happy to be in on the joke as a sequence of animals pay a visit on the facing pages: a pig, fox, porcupine, bat, pangolin, bush baby, owl, and woodpecker. Illustrated in luminous colors, Eileen Brown’s humorous take on things that go bump in the night includes endpapers picturing and naming all the nocturnal creatures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536211092
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/19/2020
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.31(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.15(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Eileen Browne has written and illustrated many books for children, including Handa’s Surprise and Handa’s Hen. Before becoming an author, she worked as a schoolteacher and youth worker. Eileen Browne lives in Wiltshire, England.

Editorial Reviews

2020-04-08
Handa spends the night at her friend Akeyo’s house and hears sounds throughout the night.

Handa and Akeyo, children of the Luo people of Kenya, are excited to sleep in the hut (evidently an outbuilding—it is unclear what kind of structure the main house is). Once inside, they lay out their mats, have a snack, and play games. Meanwhile, all sorts of sounds reach them from outside the hut. When Handa hears snorting, Akeyo says it’s just her father laughing, but readers see a view of a pig outside. When Handa hears chattering, Akeyo says the grown-ups are talking, but the illustration shows a group of bat-eared foxes outside. The noises and explanations continue, with each image of the children inside facing a view of an animal outside, as the two get ready for bed and lie down to sleep. In the morning, when Akeyo accuses her family of being noisy and they say they were quiet as mice, the two friends look out at readers as they ask, “So who was making the noise?” Handa and Akeyo are sympathetic protagonists, and the vividly illustrated creatures of the night will intrigue child readers. The persistent comparison of Akeyo’s family members to animals, however, is both ludicrous—these children have presumably heard these sounds all their lives and must know what they are—and somewhat unsettling, particularly from the perspective of a European author/illustrator. The page turns and layouts are disappointingly predictable and fail to create a suspenseful, dramatic story rhythm.

This book’s few strengths are sadly underutilized. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews