Eeny Up Above

by Jane Yolen, Kathryn Brown (Illustrator)

Overview

Curious Eeny Mole emerges from her dark hole home to discover the world up above.

There were once three sisters who lived at the bottom of a deep, dark hole. Their names were Eeny, Meeny, and Miney Mole. In that hole dark was light, day was night, and summer and winter seemed the same. The older sisters, Meeny and Miney, were happy in their hole. They loved the deep darkness of it, the soft dreaminess of it, the familiar tidiness of it. They did not ever want to leave.

One day Eeny Mole discovers something wonderful Up Above. And she goes exploring.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623718152
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/16/2024
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	338,602
Product dimensions:	11.00(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

About the Author

The amazingly prolific Jane Yolen, has been called “America’s Hans Christian Andersen.” She is the distinguished author of over 300 books, including Fairy Tale Feasts, Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts, Owl Moon and Devil’s Arithmetic. She lives on an old farm in western Massachusetts with numerous moles who do not seem to be afraid of anything. She enjoys taking walks along the river near her house and visiting people, including her editors—in fact, she wrote this book in the office of one of them.

Kathryn Brown has illustrated numerous highly-acclaimed picture books for children. She lives with her husband and their daughter near Jane Yolen in western Massachusetts. She did not, however, use the moles on Jane Yolen's farm as models for this book. (They were too hard to catch.)

Editorial Reviews

An endearing picture book ... The beautifully worded text and strong but delicate illustrations create a charm all their own ... Although Eeny first braved the Up Above in Yolen and Brown’s Eeny, Meeny, Miney Mole (2018), familiarity with the earlier book is not a prerequisite for enjoying this satisfying story of a little mole who bravely ventures forth and returns to tell the tale.

Booklist

10/04/2021

Eeny, a small, winsome mole, lives with older sisters Meeny and Miney in a cozy underground dwelling. Meeny and Miney are content with the home’s “deep darkness” and “familiar tidiness,” playing chamber music and bathing Eeny in a tea cup, but Eeny loves the world Up Above: “It was full of things both complicated and new.” In graceful prose, Yolen (Owl Moon) describes Meeny and Miney’s warnings about the dangers of Up Above, including eagles, cats, and humans, while the young mole’s friends flesh out these descriptions. Centipede describes the frightening appearance of a cat with “tickly whisklers and sharp claws.” Humans? “I have nearly been hoed by one and almost tractored by another,” Snake tells her. But Eeny, always ready to embrace what is complicated and new, ventures upward, and finds her encounter with a human a very different experience. Brown (The House That Jane Built) draws the plants and animals that sweetly pinafore-clad Eeny meets in lively, delicate detail, and makes the apparently white human who surprises Eeny manifestly nonthreatening in this morsel of a bedtime adventure. Ages 3–8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Yolen’s poetic narrative is expertly paced and has a nicely varied repetitive pattern, giving the familiar story of venturing forth into new territory a fresh flavor. Brown’s watercolors are just right: the menage is homey, though with clues to its being underground; the older sisters are visibly set in their ways, while Eeny (like Henkes’s mice) is sweet but refreshingly persistent. Perfect for sharing aloud. (Picture book. 4-8)”

“PreSchool-Grade 1—The text is carefully constructed, with thoughts building upon one another and reality clothed in poetic contemplation. This is also a book of opposites, of questions, and of astonishing answers... The characters have such full and individual personalities, and the vision of all the rooms visited is so complete, that readers will be drawn into each earth-brown picture. Young Eeny is especially engaging as she pulls her doll in its acorn wagon, a shovel by her side, energy and innocent determination in each stride. A notable effort by both author and illustrator.”

“Just as children often wonder about the earth beneath their feet, the littlest mole here sets out to discover the world ‘Up Above.’ When Eeny is told by her sisters that there is light as well as darkness, winter and summer too, she tries to imagine these concepts in familiar terms, envisioning light, for example, spreading like a blanket. Finally she burrows out of her hole and experiences spring. In its celebration of the duality and complexity of nature, Yolen’s inventive text abounds with wisdom and humor—her imagery and linguistic skills lift the tale far above the ordinary. The older moles scold, ‘Don’t listen to addlepated centipedes’—using the kind of large, old-fashioned words children love to hear. When Eeny ponders things she has never seen, she thinks imagistically, like a poet: ‘She wondered if light . . . touched in and out like the thread in the hem of a dress.’ Brown’s gracefully droll watercolors—more mature in technique than in her earlier Mule dred—portray the underworld with fanciful touches: an acorn serves as a doll’s carriage, a jonquil becomes a periscope. The palette of befogged earth tones is complemented by scattered spots of luminescence when lanterns, fire and glass light up the underworld. Ages 4-8.

From the Publisher

2021-07-14
There’s no place like home, but you can still make room for adventure.

Sisters Eeny, Meeny, and Miney Mole live companionably in their deep, dark hole. All feel safe in this atmosphere that’s always the same. Older sisters Meeny and Miney don’t ever want to leave, but the much-younger Eeny also loves the world Up Above. Both Meeny and Miney worry about Eeny’s trips Up Above and warn her of the possible dangers; the worst of all are “humans.” This makes Eeny wary but does not deter her. She brings a shovel and pail when she makes her explorations Up Above, and learns tidbits about life there from new friends Worm, Cat, Snake, and Centipede. One day, Something large with five wriggly parts comes down over her head. It smells of dirt and digging. She is frightened but reminds herself that “some moles are content in their old holes. But some moles are not me.” The feeling of Something’s paw is soft and comforting and new. Like Spring. There are some holes in this story; in particular, children will wonder just why Eeny always totes shovel and pail but hardly ever seems to use them. But Brown’s soft illustrations echo Beatrix Potter’s in both delicacy and whimsy, and Yolen’s story of bravery justified should put a smile in readers’ hearts. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Gently makes the case that everyone should follow their bliss. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews