Noisy Night

Preschool-Grade 2. One of the problems of high-rise living is getting a good night’s sleep with all those noisy neighbors. On the first floor, a little one can’t get her rest, because something is “going LaLaLa” above her head. Two legs partially visible on the floor above hint at what’s to come. Turn the page and a frizzy-haired mustachioed opera singer is practicing an aria. On ascending floors, a baby noisily coos (“MaMaMa”), cowboys laugh (“HawHawHaw”), cheerleaders leap (“RahRahRah”), and so on. Top floor? A pajama-clad bearded curmudgeon angrily shouts, “Go to bed!” The last page (“ZZZ”) shows the old man finally sleeping soundly in a blue-black room. The fun is seeing the clues at the top of each page and guessing who or what the next noisemakers will be. Barnett cleverly packs a punch with his spare text as he builds each surprise up to a humorous crescendo. Biggs’ enticing cover is an homage to Chicago Imagist artist Roger Brown, whose distinctive painting style often depicts nocturnal cityscapes with black silhouettes of people glimpsed through windows of apartment buildings. Children will want to return to this witty cover to catch glimpses of all the characters they’ve met ascending from floor to floor. The interior’s bright pages explode with color illustrating the various sound-makers gleefully going about their cacophonous activities.

Copyright 2016 Booklist, LLC Used with permission.

On the dark night of the book's cover, bright colors indicate lively scenes inside the windows of a ten-story apartment building, while tiny silhouettes hold clues to the antics occurring on each floor. Opening the book takes readers and viewers inside the first floor, where a boy lies awake: "What is going LA LA LA above my head?" Clever book design reveals just a sliver of the second floor, creating an opportunity to guess what might be happening above the ceiling. Turning the page frames the scene higher, revealing the answer: "A man is singing opera above my head." Then a bit of the third floor appears because a sound from up there is aggravating the opera singer. Up and up the book goes, with noisy surprises to discover on every level (sheep, cowboys, cheerleaders) until a dancing couple ("cha cha cha") on floor nine wonders: "What is going BLAH BLAH BLAH above our heads?" The tenth floor's resident, an old man, is hollering "GO TO BED!" which seems to work--the light from the floor below clicks off. The high energy and bright contrasts from the bold cartoon drawings, along with the call-and-response question-and-answer format of the text, create a wild and interactive read aloud. julie roach

Copyright 2017 Horn Book Magazine, LLC Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 1--This rousing selection opens with a boy being kept awake by sounds coming from the apartment above his bedroom. The lad wonders what is going on. The audible commotion stems from a man singing opera, who, in turn, wonders about sounds above his head. This leads to a lively chain of characters, each on subsequent levels of a high-rise building, producing noise and then musing about the sounds they hear from above. These additional noises are in turn produced by a baby, sheep, cowboys, a young trumpet player, a crow, cheerleaders, dancers, and, finally, an old man directing them to go to bed. This title invites audience participation; young listeners can chime in with the swift, repetitive text or by reproducing the variety of sound effects. The book's cover nicely establishes the night setting and offers readers a good sense of where the story takes place. Spirited cartoonish illustrations enhance the mood by visually magnifying the evening chaos described in the text. Children's curiosity will be piqued by illustrations with partial glimpses at floors above; these images allow readers or listeners a chance to predict who or what might be making the noises. Vibrant oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, and reds stand out against the heavy black lines used to separate apartment floors. Attention given to artwork details can be seen in the patterned wallpaper, which varies from floor to floor.

It's late, and no one is being very neighborly in the apartment building at the center of this unruly story. A well-matched Barnett (The Magic Word) and Biggs (Tinyville Town Gets to Work!) start on the first floor, where a kid is awakened by noise from the apartment above. "What is going la la la above my head?" the boy asks. The answer is revealed on the next spread: "A man is singing opera above my head." This pattern repeats for on each of the building's 10 floors, with disturbances at each stop ("rah rah rah" "cha cha cha"), until a cranky old man in the top apartment shuts the whole thing down with an emphatic "Go to bed!" Funky choices in color, texture, and typography lend an appropriate devil-may-care air to Biggs's spreads, and he cleverly teases each successive vignette by letting a slice of it peek through, like film caught between frames. The improbable cast--which includes a sheep, pair of cowboys, and a cheerleading squad--and their percussive exclamations will elicit plenty of bedtime chuckles. Ages 4-8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Mar.)

"Humorous... Enticing...The interior's bright pages explode with color."—Booklist, starred review

"Story after story of silly surprises and sounds."—Kirkus, starred review

"Percussive exclamations will elicit plenty of bedtime chuckles."—Publishers Weekly