In the Small, Small Pond (Caldecott Honor Book)

by Denise Fleming, Denise Fleming (Illustrator)

Overview

Award-winning author/illustrator Denise Fleming gives young readers a frog’s eye view of life in a pond throughout the seasons in the Caldecott Honor Book, In the Small, Small Pond.

A child explores the wonders of the natural world in this rhyming, beautiful bright colored picture storybook about the lives of small animals and insects living around a freshwater pond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780805022643
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	09/15/1993
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.40(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	4 - 5 Years

About the Author

Denise Fleming won a Caldecott Honor for In the Small, Small Pond. She is the author and illustrator of more than a dozen picture books, including Buster. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.

Denise Fleming won a Caldecott Honor for In the Small, Small Pond. She is the author and illustrator of more than a dozen picture books, including Buster. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.

Editorial Reviews

Following a frog in this colorful portrayal of the circle of life around a small pond. In the spring, the frog leaps into the water where "wiggle, jiggle, tadpoles wriggle." As the seasons pass, herons plunge, turtles doze, and minnows scatter. Finally, when snow starts to fall, the frog digs himself into the mud until the following spring. Fleming's vibrant art and energetic, rhyming text bring a toddler closer to the world of nature. Reader's will enjoy finding the frog in each picture.

Barnes & Noble Staff

Using wonderful collages, Fleming offers a frog's view of the changing seasons at a small, small pond. It's spring, and the frog jumps into the pool, where tadpoles wiggle and jiggle and baby ducks waddle and wade. As summer arrives, days grow lazier: "drowse, doze, eyes close." In the autumn, "pile, pack, muskrats stack," and when the snow finally starts falling, it's a "cold night / sleep tight. In the small, small pond." Adults will certainly be more aware than children of Fleming's subtle use of color to indicate the changing seasons, but listeners will get a kick out of the simple, yet bouncy rhymes, the brevity of which makes this book suitable for even the youngest. To make her pictures, Fleming poured colored cotton pulp through hand-cut stencils onto handmade paper. The art has both a fluidity of design and a precision of definition that make it a pleasure to view--something individuals and groups will enjoy doing.

Ilene Cooper

The animals and insects that live on and in frshwater pond wiggle, waddle, hover, swoop and swirl through the stunning spreads... Young children are introduced to the basic habits of common North American wildlife and the characteristics of changing seasons even as they are treated to an array of zipper verbs.” —Publisher's Weekly, starred review

“Another truly stunning picture book from Fleming.... A perfect book for toddlers at story time.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“[A] perfect introduction to nature for the very young.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher