Who Woke the Baby?

by Jane Clarke, Charles Fuge (Illustrator)

Overview

It’s early morning in the jungle and the little gorilla is NOT happy. Someone has woken him up! As the mystery unfolds, we learn about a chain of events involving an assortment of animals who all played a part — from Butterfly, who touched down on the same flower as Bee, which made Bee buzz, which made Frog croak, which made Crocodile thrash, to Hippo who yawned a great yawn. Find out who woke the baby — and who can cheer him up! — in this great read-aloud for little ones.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763686628
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/08/2016
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Jane Clarke is the author of more than seventy books for children, including the award-winning Gilbert series. She enjoys visiting schools and loves animals, country walks, fossil hunts, and visiting her sons and their families in the U.K. and U.S. Jane Clarke lives in Kent, England.

Charles Fuge has been writing and illustrating for almost thirty years. His first picture book was published while he was still in art school and won the Macmillan Prize and the Mother Goose Award. He lives in Dorset, England, with his partner and their son, Ollie.

Editorial Reviews

A playful anti-bedtime book—and a whimsically literal introduction to the "butterfly effect."
—Kirkus Reviews

Gather a group to read this participatory story! ...Deeply saturated watercolors with ink accents depict friendly-looking creatures, which are rendered in a cartoonish but natural style. The nonthreatening jungle setting will appeal to the intended preschool audience.
—Booklist Online

From the Publisher

02/01/2016
Toddler-PreS—A literal translation of the butterfly effect, this clever cumulative tale begins with a baby gorilla "who woke in morn,/smelly and yelly/and all forlorn." It wends its way through many jungle animals, who bump, roar, and buzz others awake. A sunny ending is in store for all of the animals when the same butterfly who woke them all proceeds to make the gorilla baby "happy and clappy" and "full of delight" at the sight of its colorful wings. Though the animals have a rude awakening, they are all smiles in the end. Sun-washed endpapers leave readers with a happy feeling as well. The illustrations are detailed and expressive, covering the pages with enormous, interesting animal scenes. The facial expressions are right in tune with the tone of the book. VERDICT A recommended purchase for picture book collections.—Jasmine L. Precopio, Fox Chapel Area School District, Pittsburgh, PA

School Library Journal

2015-12-22
Cumulative verse and bold art define this picture book. The eponymous baby is a gorilla awoken from slumbering in a nest, and opening singsong lines say it is "smelly and yelly / and all forlorn," but the accompanying art doesn't seem to quite capture this mood. The little one's facial expression reads as startled, and then, after the page turn, the perspective zooms out away from the nest to depict the noisy, yawning hippo that woke the baby. Ensuing spreads show the events that precipitated the hippo's "yawn like a horn" in rhyming, cumulative verse that will be a hit at storytime as it begs for readers to fill in line endings. Bold watercolor-and-ink illustrations inject humor into the story as one animal after another is revealed as causing a disturbance. Ultimately, readers find out that it was a butterfly that startled a bee to set off the chain of events. In a happy ending, it is also the butterfly that cheers the baby up. The impact of the story would be greater if the pictures of the gorilla showed a nuanced emotional shift instead of taking it from startled to playful. The visual highlight instead is the artistic balance between ample white space to hold the text and the vibrant art. A playful anti-bedtime book—and a whimsically literal introduction to the "butterfly effect." (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews