Please, Louise

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

Overview

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

On one gray afternoon, Louise makes a fateful 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 fun, fun, fun!

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:	9781416983392
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	337,367
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	AD510L (what's this?)
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

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

Louise, pictured as a small girl wrapped in a raincoat and armed with an umbrella, enters what she
considers a strange and scary world. But at the library, she finds “shelter from the storm” and safe worlds
to explore. The authors’ rhyming text, though reflective of a child’s fears (junkyard monsters, dogs,
neglected buildings), does not always flow naturally, but the message is loud and clear. This is a testament
to the value of reading and the imagination as ways to understand feelings and the world. Strickland’s
illustrations bring Louise’s world to life; the objects of fear, in dark colors and threatening profiles,
dominate the pages until the world of the library embraces her. Off comes her hooded coat, the sun comes
out, and she now dominates her environment. We even see a close-up of her face, totally absorbed in a
book, a friendly dog by her side. A cozy way to address the subject of fears—and to get children to the
library.

Booklist

The easy rhythm of the text of this book will soon lend itself to becoming a favorite read-aloud for elementary teachers and librarians. The story starts as Louise is walking to the library on a rainy day. The day is gloomy and she easily becomes frightened by the loud sounds on her path. Once she reaches the library, she begins to read and imagine a better place where she can be safe and happy. The illustrations are colorful and blend with the text to help tell the story.

October 2014 - Library Media Connection

A young Asian girl looks worriedly out the window, then cautiously emerges and sets off down the street. Rain is threatening, as is her gray environment—a barking dog, hunched over man, abandoned house, junkyard—and she walks timidly along. The narrator encourages her to think more positively “Scary thoughts are your creation/when you have no information.” She enters a library, her “shelter from any storm,” where she is transformed into an absorbed, eager reader, sprawled on the floor, smiling at last in this bright, inviting place. The Morrison’s ode to books and imagination has occasionally awkward rhythms in its rhyming text; its coaxing tone ultimately hits the reader over the head with its message-driven couplets. Strickland’s detailed watercolors, crayon, and pencil illustrations initially have somber overtones which then give way to soft but bright hues as he pictures what her mind is imagining, even showing her dreamingly reading under a willow tree, although she is actually still inside. His expressive close-up of her face as she explores this world in books could easily be on a reading poster. All her fear and sadness is gone as she walks home in the sun, pulling a wagon of books and smiling at the now friendly pooch and sun-splashed neighborhood. Certainly we want Louise (and all youngsters) to be comfortable in her world, to “…understand what she feels,” but a more subtle message would have sufficed. It is slightly disconcerting that such a timid child is out walking the streets without an adult. Reviewer: Peg Glisson; Ages 4 to 7.

Children's Literature - Peg Glisson

2014-02-05
A young girl sets out on a solitary walk to a surprise destination. With rain threatening, a little girl leaves home by herself wearing bright yellow boots and a slicker. The streets are filled with fearful sights and sounds—a barking dog, a darkened house, a junkyard and a statue of a bird of prey. But then light and shelter from the storm fill the pages as Louise enters a well-stocked library where "Imagination is an open door. / Step in here and let it soar." Louise comfortably stretches out on a rainbow-hued floor to read before walking home, passing the now-friendly dog and people sitting on the steps of the house, now shining brightly in the sun. She sits in front of her own house surrounded by books and then goes inside to settle herself in a cozy window seat to read. The Morrisons, mother and son, write in rhyming couplets with the message firmly hammered home: "[B]ooks can teach and please Louise." Adult readers may find this disconcerting: A child alone on dark and scary streets finds comfort solely from books (even library staff are nowhere to be seen). Strickland's watercolor-and-gouache paintings are delicate, detailed and beautiful. Louise is a lovely child and a poster girl for reading. Still, that there appear to be no caring adults in her world is troubling. An ode to reading that raises too many concerns. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews