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All Year Long
Pictures a variety of activities on different days of the week during each month of the year from a Sunday in January to a Saturday in December.
- GenresPicture Books
30 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1983
5 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Tafuri
67 books57 followersNancy Tafuri is probably best known as the creator of Have You Seen My Duckling?, a 1985 Caldecott Honor Book described by Parent’s Choice as “beautifully precise yet emotionally affecting.” Trained as a graphic designer, Tafuri has authored more than 45 books over 30 years for the very young.
When Tafuri first attempted picture book illustration in the late 1970’s picture books were aimed at five-, six-, and seven-year-olds. Tafuri’s images were considered “too graphic” for children that age. “The pictures are too big,” she was told over and over about the large, colorful shapes she drew. Finally, Tafuri’s talent was recognized and tapped at Greenwillow Books, Harper Collins Publishers.
Since then she has had the opportunity to work with Scholastic Press, Scholastic Inc., Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division and most recently Little, Brown Books For Young Readers, Little, Brown and Company.
Tafuri was born in Brooklyn, New York. For the first ten years of her life she was an only child and says that this helped her to learn to entertain herself with stories and art.
Tafuri entered the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1964. Her first job was as an assistant art director for the publishing firm Simon & Schuster. She left two years later and married Thomas Tafuri, a fellow student at the School of Visual Arts.
The Tafuri’s opened their own graphic design studio, in 1971. Their primary product was dust jackets for hardcover books. They opened their business in New York City, but eventually moved their studio and home to Connecticut.
At this time, Nancy was able to devote all of her time to writing and illustration.
When Tafuri finally found herself illustrating children’s books, either her own or other authors’, she felt she had found her life’s calling and a strong sense of joy from creating them. She loves to take a small portion of the text and create a visual representation that children can grasp and remember. In 1989, when Cristina was born, Nancy began to feel even more strongly motivated to illustrate for children. Her work seemed even more important and more personal.
“I feel honored to be creating literature for young children. Seeing how very important the early years are in a person’s life, I can only hope that my books can contribute in some small way to that growth, with the feelings that I hope I project within those pages, through line, color, shape, and story.”
When Tafuri first attempted picture book illustration in the late 1970’s picture books were aimed at five-, six-, and seven-year-olds. Tafuri’s images were considered “too graphic” for children that age. “The pictures are too big,” she was told over and over about the large, colorful shapes she drew. Finally, Tafuri’s talent was recognized and tapped at Greenwillow Books, Harper Collins Publishers.
Since then she has had the opportunity to work with Scholastic Press, Scholastic Inc., Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division and most recently Little, Brown Books For Young Readers, Little, Brown and Company.
Tafuri was born in Brooklyn, New York. For the first ten years of her life she was an only child and says that this helped her to learn to entertain herself with stories and art.
Tafuri entered the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1964. Her first job was as an assistant art director for the publishing firm Simon & Schuster. She left two years later and married Thomas Tafuri, a fellow student at the School of Visual Arts.
The Tafuri’s opened their own graphic design studio, in 1971. Their primary product was dust jackets for hardcover books. They opened their business in New York City, but eventually moved their studio and home to Connecticut.
At this time, Nancy was able to devote all of her time to writing and illustration.
When Tafuri finally found herself illustrating children’s books, either her own or other authors’, she felt she had found her life’s calling and a strong sense of joy from creating them. She loves to take a small portion of the text and create a visual representation that children can grasp and remember. In 1989, when Cristina was born, Nancy began to feel even more strongly motivated to illustrate for children. Her work seemed even more important and more personal.
“I feel honored to be creating literature for young children. Seeing how very important the early years are in a person’s life, I can only hope that my books can contribute in some small way to that growth, with the feelings that I hope I project within those pages, through line, color, shape, and story.”
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 17, 2015
While not as callous as Snowy Flowy Blowy : A Twelve Months Rhyme's celebration of influenza, instead this is a ponderous trip through the months. Conflating months and days of the week really doesn't add anything to the book, and just confuses the situation. Thursday! That's so August... and September? In what world? If you want to try to tie them together by presenting the end of the year as some sort of weekend and late autumn as Friday and the end of winter as Monday, try harder to make that comparison. Random images, however touching, aren't going to cut it.
November 18, 2017
I liked the pictures but other than that it was just the days of the week and names of all the months
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2025
Of course I liked this title, it’s Nancy Tafuri and her beautiful, big, up close illustrations of animals. It is the very sparse text using the days of the week and the months of the year that doesn’t work for me. Please just take the very young child on your lap and talk with them about what they are viewing. The child will love being on your lap, hearing your voice, and seeing the illustrations.
February 3, 2020
I am going to use this book with preschools today. I expect to talk about the things they do on certain days of the week and does the activity change depending on the month/season.
I'm excited to hear what they think about.
I'm excited to hear what they think about.
May 28, 2019
Simple and lovely.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews