Please, Louise (with audio recording)

by Toni Morrison, Slade Morrison, Shadra Strickland (Illustrator), Toni Morrison (Read by)

Overview

A library card unlocks a new life for a young girl in this picture book about the power of imagination, from Nobel Prize–winning author Toni Morrison.

On one gray afternoon, Louise makes a trip to the library. With the help of a new library card and through the transformative power of books, what started out as a dull day turns into one of surprises, ideas, and imagination!

Inspired by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Toni Morrison’s experience working in a library as a young girl, this engaging picture book celebrates the wonders of reading, the enchanting capacity of the imagination, and, of course, the splendor of libraries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442433106
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	AD510L (what's this?)
File size:	26 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize–winning American author, editor, and professor. Her contributions to the modern canon are numerous. Some of her acclaimed titles include: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature 1993.
Slade Morrison was born in Ohio and educated in New York City. He studied art at SUNY Purchase and collaborated with his mother, Toni Morrison, on five books for children.
Shadra Strickland studied, design, writing, and illustration at Syracuse University and later went on to complete her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009 for her work in her first picture book, Bird, written by Zetta Elliott. Strickland co-illustrated Our Children Can Soar, winner of a 2010 NAACP Image Award. She teaches illustration at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit her online at ShadraStrickland.com.

Hometown:

Princeton, New Jersey, and Manhattan

Date of Birth:

February 18, 1931

Place of Birth:

Lorain, Ohio

Education:

Howard University, B.A. in English, 1953; Cornell, M.A., 1955

Editorial Reviews

03/01/2014
K-Gr 3—Louise leaves the house on a gray, rainy day, walking past abandoned cars and barking dogs to the library, a warm and dry haven where her imagination can take flight. The concept behind this story is lovely; the execution, however, falls flat. The rhyming text is clunky and awkward and lacks an easily spoken cadence. Toward the end, the narrative changes jarringly from speaking to Louise to talking about Louise. The mixed-media illustrations are effective, especially as the palette changes when the dreary day gives way to sun, but they are not enough to compensate for the unwieldy verse.—Martha Link Yesowitch, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC

School Library Journal

12/16/2013
The Morrisons (The Tortoise or the Hare) don’t just champion the act of reading: they explain what it does. Reading is valuable, they explain, because it banishes fear. “Scary thoughts are your creation/ when you have no information.” Louise, an Asian girl, sets out for the library in a yellow rain slicker. The trip is scattered with threats: a strange man hunched over a harmonica, a deserted house with dark windows. The narrator pleads with Louise to think clearly instead of reacting reflexively: “Is that house really haunted? Or does it just need care?/ Why not imagine the joy that used to be there?” When Louise enters the library, its shelves open wide around her in an embrace. Strickland (White Water) paints a moving portrait of Louise in tight close-up, completely absorbed in reading. On the way home, the change in Louise’s attitude is reflected in what she sees. While it’s hard to fault the message that books can open minds and perspectives, the delivery suffers from a cajoling narrative tone and an overall roughness to the verse. Ages 4–8. Illustrator’s agent: Lori Nowicki, Painted Words. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly