Good Night Owl

Greg Pizzoli seems to have a thing for obsessive characters. The crocodile in 2014 Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal book, The Watermelon Seed, was obsessed with watermelon and then obsessed with the imagined consequences of swallowing a watermelon seed. While reading this book, a first grade student  said repeatedly, "I really, really love this book".

In Good Night Owl, Owl hears an unfamiliar noise as he is going to bed. He checks the door, there is no one there. As he is returning to bed, he hears it again, this time from the cupboard. He takes everything out but can't find the source of the sound. He goes back to bed and hears it again. Is it coming from under the floor? He pulls up every floor board but does not find it. This pattern is repeated as he dismantles the roof and the walls but he is no closer to finding the source of the sound. In his bed, under the stars, he finally sees the source of the noise: a mouse. After Owl says "good night noise" they both go to sleep. This book received a 2017 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor.

I love that Owl is holding a book on the cover; a picture says a thousand words. The font is large and well spaced. It is easy for a beginning reader to tell where one word ends and another begins.

The Sonoma County Library has five copies. The AR is 1.7.

2017 Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal and Honors

The American Library Association gives the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the “most distinguished beginning reader book” We Are Growing : A Mo Willems' Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! Book written by Laurie Keller.

You can read my review here.

The Honor books are:

Good Night Owl written and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli. Three years ago Greg Pizzoli won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal for The Watermelon Seed a book that has delighted many of my students.

Oops, Pounce, Quick, Run! An Alphabet Caper words and pictures by Mike Twohy

Go Otto Go! written and illustrated by David Milgrim

The Infamous Ratsos words by Kara LaReau and pictures by Matt Myers

The Watermelon Seed

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal winner for 2014 is The Watermelon Seed  by Greg Pizzoli. The book uses simple  graphics employing the colors of watermelon: pink, green and black. The text is large and well-spaced, very useful to beginning readers.

Our crocodile protagonist LOVES watermelon. He eats it morning, noon and night and even for dessert. One day, he swallows a watermelon seed. In his panic he envisions the horrors that await him. It is growing inside of him, the vines will soon grow out of his ears! He may turn pink, his stomach will stretch! Can someone help him? His stomach feels funny and on a page that will get the reader giggling is a l-o-n-g burp and up comes the seed. He swears off watermelon forever, except for maybe just one little bite.

The Sonoma County Library has several copies. The AR level is 1.0. This is the author’s first picture book with two more to be published in 2014. You can check out his website here.