Wake Up, Big Barn!

by Suzanne Tanner-Chitwood

A gorgeous first picture book which demands to be read aloud by an exciting new author/illustrator about a rowdy and rollicking farm.

Suzanne Chitwood's show stopping, eye-popping art style is bound to be the buzz of the season. Drawn in a classical style and "painted" in papers and other materials from top-secret sources, Suzanne's mud-bathing piggies, wiggling weather vanes, be-bop frogs, and groovy owl appear to emerge from the pages of the book. And her musical text features onomatopoeic sounds and funky rhythms that make this book perfect for reading aloud.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Fiction, Storytime

40 pages, Hardcover

Published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Richelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute farm book for storytime

[Miss Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A simple and baby up book about waking up a farm and then going through some adventures of the day. simple text and collage pictures.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very simple text, mostly of animal noises. But I always enjoy this form of illustration

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

These big bright torn-paper collage illustrations work very well in a library story time setting. The brief text per page is another plus. Our theme was OWLS, so I told the children to let me know when we came to the page with an owl (it was the next-to-the-last page).

This was our first story for a number of reasons, the first being that little children LOVE making animal sounds and this book provides an opportunity for this on every page. The line-up includes...

a rooster
pigs
donkeys (they always say they're horses and then you give clues)
calves
a peacock!
horses
frogs
a crow
a tractor
a goose
and at last -- an owl!

Since the text is so spare have some fun chatting with the children about the animals (briefly!).

[Danica Midlil · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like the large size of the pictures and the words but the collages themselves are hard to make out. The two page spread of pigs is the worst. YOu really have to stare at those pink and brown blobs before your brain can make sense of all those paper bits and make out the pig! I think the medium defeats the point of such large illustrations. They aren't clearly showing what they are supposed to show. They only reason I can make out the peacock is that I know what it's supposed to look like. A toddler is just going to see a page of blue and yellow chaos.
NOT a fan of her artwork!

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn about this book. On one hand, I really loved the illustrations. They were original and had intriguing details and pleasant colors. However, the book felt disjointed. There wasn't a plot line (not totally necessary in a children's book), but the pictures also werent unified by any sort of repetition or theme. It was almost like the illustrator made all of these barn pictures and then gave them captions and that was it.
My daughter still enjoyed it, though, which is the important thing. She's looking at it and making horsey noises as we speak.

[Lucia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just found this on one of the book carts. The text is limited, very simple and not great. But the illustrations are really wonderful, done with torn paper and fabric in collage style. The bookjacket says she went to this medium because her small house did not have enough room for her easel and paints. Very cool, indeed.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful read-aloud, with illustrations made from torn and cut magazine scraps and colored paper pieces. Enjoyable animal sounds, too!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book could have a 5 star if the text wasn't so simple. The illustrations are awesome!

[Shanshad Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very simply worded farm book with stunning collage-work art. Great for toddlers/babies.

[Fibersian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Traits of farm life is told in short simple sentences. Great for word knowledge. Words match the illustrations.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the torn paper illustrations!