Eeny Up Above
Crocodile Books (November 2, 2021)
Illustrated by Kathryn Brown
ISBN-10: 1623718651
ISBN-13: 978-1623718657
After the first book came out–Eeny Meeny Miney Mole from HAacourt, the company itself changed hands. Editors (including mine) left, and no one wanted the second book. But years later, (20 Years maybe?) it has found a new home. The two books are about the three mole sisters who live in a deep dark hole. I have now written a third book abut them. Hope it doesn’t take that long to get it out!
What reviewers have said:
- “An endearing picture book … The beautifully worded text and strong but delicate illustrations create a charm all their own … Although Eeny first braved the Up Above in Yolen and Brown’s Eeny, Meeny, Miney Mole (2018), familiarity with the earlier book is not a prerequisite for enjoying this satisfying story of a little mole who bravely ventures forth and returns to tell the tale.” — Booklist
- “Like Spring … Brown’s soft illustrations echo Beatrix Potter’s in both delicacy and whimsy, and Yolen’s story of bravery justified should put a smile in readers’ hearts.” — Kirkus Reviews
- “PreSchool-Grade 1―The text is carefully constructed, with thoughts building upon one another and reality clothed in poetic contemplation. This is also a book of opposites, of questions, and of astonishing answers… The characters have such full and individual personalities, and the vision of all the rooms visited is so complete, that readers will be drawn into each earth-brown picture. Young Eeny is especially engaging as she pulls her doll in its acorn wagon, a shovel by her side, energy and innocent determination in each stride. A notable effort by both author and illustrator.” ― School Library Journal
- “Just as children often wonder about the earth beneath their feet, the littlest mole here sets out to discover the world ‘Up Above.’ When Eeny is told by her sisters that there is light as well as darkness, winter and summer too, she tries to imagine these concepts in familiar terms, envisioning light, for example, spreading like a blanket. Finally she burrows out of her hole and experiences spring. In its celebration of the duality and complexity of nature, Yolen’s inventive text abounds with wisdom and humor―her imagery and linguistic skills lift the tale far above the ordinary. The older moles scold, ‘Don’t listen to addlepated centipedes’―using the kind of large, old-fashioned words children love to hear. When Eeny ponders things she has never seen, she thinks imagistically, like a poet: ‘She wondered if light . . . touched in and out like the thread in the hem of a dress.’ Brown’s gracefully droll watercolors―more mature in technique than in her earlier Mule dred―portray the underworld with fanciful touches: an acorn serves as a doll’s carriage, a jonquil becomes a periscope. The palette of befogged earth tones is complemented by scattered spots of luminescence when lanterns, fire and glass light up the underworld.” ― Publishers Weekly
Get EENY UP ABOVE from:
