Loud Emily

by Alexis O'Neill, Nancy Carpenter (Illustrator)

Overview

Poor Emily. She doesn't mean to be loud, but whenever she says anything in her Emily voice, plates shatter, neighbors are astonished, and birds are frightened right out of the trees. It seems like there's nowhere she fits in. Until the day she sees a ship with a sign that reads: LOUD HELP NEEDED. NOW. So Emily sets sail for an adventure on the high seas, where perhaps there is a place for her after all...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689846694
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	12/01/2001
Edition description:	Original ed.
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	35,380
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nancy Carpenter is the acclaimed illustrator of Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt, Queen Victoria’s Bathing Machine, Fannie in the Kitchen, and Loud Emily, among other books. Her works have garnered many honors, including two Christopher Awards and the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at NancyCarpenter.website.

Editorial Reviews

PreS-Gr 2-Set in a 19th-century New England whaling town, this picture book champions the cause of loud children and the resourcefulness of little girls. When Emily is born, her booming "GOO GOO BA BA" startles the midwife and frightens away the birds. As she grows older, she grows louder. Rather than be carted off to Miss Meekmeister's School for Soft-Spoken Girls, Emily gets herself a job calling orders on a whaling ship. This is just the place for the boisterous child, and she blasts commands to the crew and even saves the ship during a storm. In the satisfying conclusion, Emily returns to live with her family, but this time in a lighthouse where she warns passing vessels of dangerous rocks. "And nobody there in that house by the sea ever complains of the noise." The oil paintings are styled after 19th-century folk art and successfully pull the story together. Much of the text is set against embroidery cloth, giving the book a charming, homespun look. The endpapers provide the words for several sea chanteys, along with scrimshaw-style illustrations that show Emily, her mouth open wide, hard at work with the sailors. A rollicking tale with a likable heroine that attests to the irrepressible nature of children.-Christy Norris Blanchette, Valley Cottage Library, NY

School Library Journal

Seven-year-old Emily, a petite child with stentorian pipes, takes ship with whispery Captain Baroo and his "kind but luckless" crew rather than enroll in Miss Meekmeister's School for Soft-Spoken Girls. Soon she's indispensable, bellowing orders into the gale," `AVAST! LUFF HER UP BEFORE WE'RE STOVE!' "and summoning up friendly whales to steer the ship away from rocks. Ultimately, she finds an even worthier use for her talent, as a human foghorn for her New England hometown. Evoking American Primitive conventions, Carpenter poses stiff, comic wincing figures, clad in early 19th-century dress, in carefully appointed interiors and bustling outdoor scenes. An appealing nautical tale, this will have reflective readers wondering why whales would come to the rescue of a whaling ship, but O'Neill's language has a roll and verve that captures her young heroine's spirit perfectly. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews