Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Luminous pictures and a buoyant, chant-aloud text, combine to make this two-way counting book as joyous and magical as catching fireflies on a summer night.
Synopsis
Lyrical, expressive, varied, and excellent for reading out loud.
- School Library Journal, starred review Counting down from ten to one, a girl and a boy empty the night sky of fireflies as -- counting up from one to ten -- they fill their jar with them. But once captured, the fireflies' light flickers and fades, so in a generous good-night gesture, the children release them.
Luminous pictures and a chant-aloud text combine to make this two-way counting book as joyous and magical as catching fireflies on a summer night.
A book quietly luminous as its subject.
- Kirkus Reviews
Elegant mathematical simplicity and careful rhyme, illustrated in keeping with its nocturnal theme and bedtime role.
- NAPPA Awards
National Parenting Publications Awards, Gold Medal, 1995
Smithsonian Magazine Notable Books for Children, 1995
Booklinks Salutes a Few Good Books, 1995
American Bookseller Pick of the Lists
About the Author
Philemon Sturges was an architect and the author of several books for children, including "I Love Trains!, I Love Trucks!, I Love Planes!, I Love School!, " and "I Love Bugs!"Anna Vojtech has illustrated numerous books for children, mostly folktales and stories about nature. Nature has always been a strong source of inspiration for Anna. Her pictures are full of flowers and animals, of giraffes and elephants, of little birds and chipmunks. Folktales are also about people, their nature and their spirit. Her illustrations have brought readers closer to the stories and traditions of their countries.
Anna grew up in Prague, Czechoslovakia, what is now the Czech Republic. "Prague was a magical place to grow up. We were surrounded by beauty, mystery, history and by nature." She studied art and toy design at the School of Applied Arts and animation film and graphics at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague. Later she attended the Royal Academy in Antwerp, Belgium and the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany where she met her German-American husband.
Since 1982 she has lived on Cape Ann, Massachusetts with her husband and their two sons.