Bedtime Hullabaloo

by David Conway

Korean edition of BEDTIME HULLABALOO by David Conway and illustrated by Charles Fuge. One night on the silly savannah, a ludicrous leopard is leapfrogging to bed and a hat-wearing hyena is half asleep. All of a sudden they hear a terrible racket and decide to follow the noise - Product Description. Translated by Lee Gyeong Hei. In Korean. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Storytime

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 2010

About the author

David Conway is a children's picture book author who has written for Hodder, Random House, Frances Lincoln and Gullane Children's Books. He has been awarded The Peter Pan Silver Star by the Swedish wing of the IBBY and the Parents' Choice Gold Award in the US for Lila and the Secret of Rain. His first picture book The Most Important Gift of All illustrated by Karin Littlewood, was nominated for The Kate Greenaway Medal in 2006.

David's most recent picture book The Great Nursery Rhyme Disaster was chosen as one of the children's books of the year 2008 by Nicolette Jones of The Sunday Times and has been shortlisted for the 2009 Sheffield Children's Book Award. Shine Moon Shine was chosen as one of the top ten picture books of 2008 by The Bookbag.

David's picture books are published in the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Spain (Catalan and Spanish) Columbia, Korea the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, South Africa and Japan. As well as writing David is a stay-at-home father and brings up his two children Bess and Jude and a cat called Bobby. David's wife works in academic publishing.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that was read to a year 6 autistic class during my first placement and at first I was quite concerned how the children who mostly non-verbal would be able to connect with the story as the language in my opinion is quite complex for children with their needs. However the class were so engaged with the tale as a result of the bright, expressive illustrations by Charles Fuge, who really brought the story to life.

The story follows a night in ‘Silly Savannah’, where a ‘ludicrous Leopard is leapfrogging to bed and a hat-wearing Hyena is half asleep when all of a sudden there is a terrible racket HHHZZZ-ZZZ!’. So they get up to explore where the noise might be coming from, the story then continues with more and more of the Savannah animals joining in with the exploration. Eventually they are all surprised to find the ‘terrible racket HHHZZZ-ZZZ!’ is coming from a tiny shrew and her snoring! More hilarity breaks out when the shew gets her own back after she is rudely awoken by all the animals who then ‘slump into a heap fast asleep and start their own snoring’.

It really is a lovely story for children in reception/early key stage 1 to be able to explore new language as they can really get to grips with the fun sayings in the book. It also turned out to be great for the autistic class I was reading the story too as they were able to either sign the animals to me or make the noise of the animals so again even though some of the language was quite complex for them they could still fully engage with the story as they could identify which animals were part of the story.

Even though we did not carry out any extended activities with the class for this book; with more able children you could ask them to write or draw their own bedtime routines to share with the class, they could also re-tell the story using their own illustrations which could be used as a display in the classroom.

[Laura Stefanovic]

Throughout this book there was frequent use of alliteration such as 'ludicrous leopard' and 'still starlight'; engaging readers. This book was also catching to readers as there was frequent use of rhyming, adding a sense of almost singing a song, enabling the reader to read in a rhythm suitable for the rhyming sentences.
Due to the book involving lots of different animals, this book would be very suitable for a whole class read; allowing different children volunteering themselves to be a different animal and interact when necessary within the book. This therefore could also be incorporated into a class lesson plan with different subjects, such as drawing their favourite animal in an arts class, or in a Literacy lesson writing a poster or letter about their animal.
This book portrays the idea that even though something is small (in this case a tiny shrew), it can still be heard greater than all the other bigger animals.

[Abby Peskin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute story of animals on the savanna who are all getting ready for bed, when their peaceful bedtime is disrupted by a loud noise. They all get together to go find the source of the loud noise, and it's not what you'd expect!

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just super cute. It also made me want to read bedtime stories to the moon.

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun and had a great vocabulary like ludicrous. Loved the water buffalo in polka dot pajamas. And the illustrations were lovely.

[Megan Ledbetter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be brilliant for teaching children alliteration -‘Silly Savannah’ ‘ludicrous leopard’. Using different animals the children could create these alliterations.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can we talk about vocabulary-building picture books for a minute? Because this one not only contains the word hullabaloo, but also: din, clamor, hubbub, and rumpus. Not to mention the language fun: a "hat-wearing hyena half-aslep, a music-making meerkat counting sheep..." Charles Fuge is one of my favorite illustrators, also, but he's not so well known, sadly. His animals are charming and full of expression. I can't wait to add this to my bedtime- or noisy-themed storytimes.

[Sandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the wording like ludicrous leopard and silly savannah and things like that. I thought the pictures were fantastic.

The storyline itself was ok...it was cute enough actually but I just didn't really get into it. My daughter really enjoyed it....she thought it was very funny. Maybe to a five year old it is though! The vocabulary and pictures alone make it a worthwhile read alone.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE this illustrator. That's why I got the book in the first place to read to Collin. Fun story of animals that hear a very loud sound that sounds like a hullabaloo but is really just a little shrew who snores. The illustrations are definitely the highlight of this book.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colorful and fun. Great read aloud choice.

[Briana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had lots of big words for a picture book. The storyline isn't that great, but the illustrations are engaging. Great story for teaching little ones about various kinds of jungle animals.

[Jaime Gotlieb · Rating 5 out of 5]

finally another picture book I can get excited about. An excellent choice for growing kids' vocabulary!

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preschool

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one made me chuckle at the end. Great book to give a snorer. :)

[Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's super funny!!!!

[Elizabeth Bardsley]

This book follows a gathering of animals through the jungle on a quest to find out where the noise is coming from!