Boom Boom Go Away!: with audio recording

by Laura Geringer, Bagram Ibatoulline (Illustrator)

Overview

When his parents tell him it’s time for bed, a little boy enlists the help of his bedroom toys, one by one, to noisily emphasize his retort: GO AWAY! Definitely not your typical lullaby, the book’s repetitive beat of booms and dings and clinks and blings forms a rhythm all its own that will have kids joining in and marching right off to dreamland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481442992
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	12/16/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	31 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Laura Geringer is the author of many highly acclaimed books for children and young adults, including the celebrated A Three Hat Day illustrated by Arnold Lobel; Myth Men, a popular series of graphic novels based on the classic Greek myths; and Sign of the Qin, Book l of the Outlaws of Moonshadow Marsh series, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and Boom, Boom Go Away illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. She serves on the National Advisory Board of First Book, a charity that has distributed over seventy million books to children in need. Laura lives in New York City.

 

Bagram Ibatoulline was born in Russia and educated at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute. His first book was Philip Booth's Crossing, named a 2001 Best Book by Publishers Weekly. He is best known for his books with Kate di Camillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and Great Joy.   Bagram lives in Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

Geringer's (A Three Hat Day) bouncy beats and sound effects will have musical readers all a-clamor. The cover pictures a toy gnome and his drum under a tent of a storybook that reads, “A Most Unusual Bedtime Story,” and the story's energetic action exploits readers' after-dinner punchiness. It all starts with the gnome pounding away at his drum: “And when his mama said,/ 'You had better go to bed,'/ He said, 'Hush!/ Don't spoil the rhythm/ Of my drum.” A repeating “boom boom” in bold display type alternates with the gnome's spoken “Go away!” One by one, restless toys join in—tapping a gong (“ding ding”), shaking bells (“bong bong”), blasting a horn, and tooting a bassoon. The chorus grows (“Go away. plong plong clink clink bong bong... Go away!”) as their mingled music and voices spill across the spreads. Ibatoulline (Great Joy) pictures the dolls in closeup in a playroom, gathering blocks and sitting down to form an onomatopoeic orchestra. Geringer's foreword credits the Dalcroze method of musical improvisation for inspiring this physical sequence, and single or multiple performers can generate satisfying harmony or noisy discord. Ages 3–6. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 1—Each time a parent tells a boy to go to bed, the toys in his room delay the process by playing their instruments and saying they can't be disturbed. A gnome in his little home plays a bass drum, an elf underneath the shelf plays a gong, a prince makes people wince with his loud bassoon, and so on, coming full circle back to the gnome and a very tired child asleep at last, surrounded by his miniature musicians. The rhythmical text has an appealing cadence and a catchy refrain. Ibatoulline's watercolor and acrylic-gouache spreads of the child's room are wonderfully designed, and readers see everything from the playthings' perspective. Huge books, plants, and furniture bleed off the pages. The artist singles out each new toy on its own page along with its sound printed in bold. Then it reappears on the next spread along with previous toys and their sounds so that eventually, a weaving parade of music makers and their sounds march across the pages. Only at the end do children see the real music maker. While this noisy story won't lull little ones to sleep any time soon, they will have a grand time repeating the refrain and the sounds. They may even drop from exhaustion along with the young protagonist.—Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT

School Library Journal

Toys come alive in a child's disheveled room, each with its own instrument and unique sound, and chime together for a bedtime song. The gnome's drum goes boom boom, while the elf's ancient gong goes ding ding; the little knight's battle bells go bong bong. As other toys join in, piling more sounds into the refrain, readers may grow weary and confused by a beat that never fully reveals itself. Often the sounds themselves fail to resonate-would an ancient gong emit a teeny ding ding? In each verse mama or papa suggests, "You had better go to bed," and the prancing doll barks, " ‘Hush! Don't spoil the rhythm of my drum [gong, bells, etc.]' / boom boom / ‘Go away!' " Few children will feel lulled by such bratty behavior nor by the cacophony of sounds. Ibatoulline's flat artwork falls short of capturing the magic of an animated toy; bland miniatures appear frozen amid piles of clutter and dull backdrops of washed, graduated color. As more toys, sounds and text jumble each page, readers may be tempted to simply shut the book and enjoy the sounds of silence. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews

Geringer's (A Three Hat Day) bouncy beats and sound effects will have musical readers all a-clamor. Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher