Summary
The Hello, Goodby Window was written
for very young children. It is about spending time at Poppy and
Nanna's house and how even a kitchen window can take on special
significance through a child's eyes. The window can be used to say
hello, knowing that Nanna and Poppy will be in the kitchen. It is
through this window that the child can play peek a boo with her
grandparents, see the garden from the safety of the kitchen, or see
any person who happens to stop by. The window has magical
properties, turning into a mirror at night. The story is about
everyday routines that are important to a young child, like helping
Nanna in the garden. It is a story told with a child's perspective.
So one knows that nothing can happen while the child takes a nap.
It's about making a game of eating oatmeal with bananas and hidden
raisins. or listening to Poppy play the harmonica, even when it is
the same song over and over again. It is about looking at the world
in innocence and learning how some things can not be explained, like
being sad to say good-bye to Nanna and Poppy, but happy to go home as
well.
Impressions
This book seems a simple story, and one
can visualize how a young child can experience a visit to Nanna and
Poppy's house as a magical, happy time. Many little children can
relate to the events in this book, like the necessity of taking a
nap, or imagining a tiger behind the big bush. The child's
perspective makes the story seem more realistic, like how the child
thinks that nothing happens while she is taking a nap. The child
knows that Nanna and Poppy's big house has many windows, but only one
that is the special hello goodbye window. What makes the story truly
come to life is the illustrations by Chris Raschka. One can only
describe the use of color, the broad strokes of the brush, and the
childlike drawings as an intricate part of the magic the child
experiences at Nanna and Poppy's house. The illustration that
depicts a large cat like a tiger, and the child peeking out from
behind Nanna, add depth and tell more than the text does about how a
child finds safety in Nanna's presence, or how a small cat can seem
like a scary animal to a young child. The splashes of color used in
the illustrations make Poppy playing the harmonica seem like fun,
even though it is same song over and over, he can play it so many
different ways. The darker illustration of the night make the safety
of being indoors real, yet Nanna's ability to say good night to all
the stars is such a childlike belief in the all knowing powers of
grownups. As the little girl happily plays with her grandparents,
there is no mention that her Nanna and Poppy are not of the same
race. This is a book that can help teach children how to accept
others that are different than you, and that families may have many
different colors. This is an exceptional book and one that should be
read to all young children.
Use in the library
This is a great book to use as a
springboard to talk to children about family relationships, and how
they feel about their parents and grandparents. Students can bring
pictures of their family to make a picture family tree. The words
hello and goodbye may have different connotations in different
languages, and this book can be used as an introduction for ELL
students to write hello and goodbye in their own languages and share
these with others using an art medium to convey the message. Another
use in the library is to work with music and teach the children to
sing "Oh Susannah". It is also a book that can be used for
art study for older students to learn the use of water color, or to
depict emotion using color.
Reviews
Publisher's Weekly
"Juster (The Phantom Tollbooth)
crafts a cozy portrait of a grandchild and her grandparents in this
endearing book, illustrated in paintbox colors by Raschka (Be Boy
Buzz). A curly haired girl-who dances with wiggly energy in
Raschka's lush paintings-describes playful visits to her Nanna and
Poppy, whose kitchen window provides the perfect venue to say hello
and goodbye. "You can climb up on the flower barrel and tap,"
she says, "then duck down and they won't know who did it."
Her grandparents welcome her into a sunlit, spacious kitchen filled
with plants, where she doodles and listens to Poppy play "Oh,
Susannah" on the harmonica. At night, the "Hello, Goodbye
Window" functions as a mirror, and the girl jokes about being
outside looking in: "Poppy says, 'What are you doing out there?
You come right in and have your dinner.' And I say, 'But I'm here
with you, Poppy,' and then he looks at me in his funny way."
Juster departs from the over-the-top punning of his earlier works to
create a genrly humorous account of a family's conversations and
games, all centered on the special window. Raschka warms the pages
with glowing yellow, emerald, sapphire and golden brown, and he
pictures the garden and trees in emphatic midsummer greens. The
characters smile at one another with a doting twinkle in their eyes,
and grandparents especially will be charmed by this relaxed account
of how a child's visit occasions everyday magic".
Booklist
"Two well-known names come
together in a book that speaks to the real lives of children and
their experiences. The young narrator visits her grandparents, Nanna
and Poppy, in their big house. They explore Nanna's garden, and
Poppy plays his harmonica. The narrator rides her bike and takes a
nap, 'and nothing happens till I get up.' Looking out the picture
window, the 'hello, goodbye window,' she sees the pizza guy and more
fancifully, a dinosaur. She also spots her parents coming to pick
her up. The curly-haired girl is happy to see them, but sad because
it means the end of the visit. The window imagery is less important
than the title would make it seem. More intrinsic is Juster's hones
portrayal of a child's perceptions (a striped cat in the yard is a
tiger) and emotions (being happy and sad at the same time 'just
happens that way sometimes'). Raschka's swirling lines, swaths, and
dabs of fruity colors seem especially vibrant, particularly in the
double-page spreads, which have ample room to capture both the tender
moments between members of the interracial family and the exuberance
of spending time in the pulsating outdoors, all flowers, grass, and
sky". --Ilene Cooper
Resources
Juster, N. (2005). The
hello, goodbye window. Ill. by Chris Raschka. New York, NY:
Hyperion Books for Children.
Cooper, I. (2005, March).
[Review of the book The hello, goodbye window by N. Juster].
Booklist,101(14), 1286. Retrieved from
http://www.booklistonline.com/
The Hello goodbye window.
[Review of the book by N. Juster]. (2005). Publishers Weekly,
252(8), 173-174. Retrieved from
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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