Silly Sally: A Whimsical Picture Book About Walking Backward and Upside Down with Animal Friends

by Audrey Wood

"Silly Sally went to town, walking backwards, upside down."

And that's just the beginning...

Come along with Silly Sally and her silly companions as they parade into town in a most unusual way. Young listeners and readers will be tickled to join the topsy-turvy procession over and over again and soon will be reciting the catchy rhymes about Silly Sally's journey.

Once again Audrey Wood presents an engagingly simple cumulative tale that young children will be reading and reciting for years to come.

Audrey Wood is the well-loved author of twenty-eight books for children. Her lively illustrations accompany sizteen of those books, including Harcourt's Little Penguins Tale (1989), Oh My Baby Bear! (1990) and most recently, Rude Giants (1993).

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

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 1994

About the author

Audrey Wood studied art and drama at the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has owned an operated a book and import store, taught chldren's drama and art, and traveled throughout Mexico and Guatemala studying Indian folk art. She now lives in Hawaii with her talented family (husband Don and son Bruce, who have both collaborated with Audrey by illustrating some of her books).

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy wacky and out there, but Silly Sally is beyond the boundaries or wacky and quirky. She is in the land of madness and needs to be locked up. She scares me. She could be a Batman villain and fit in with the worst of them. This is the land of madness and it’s a catching madness as well.

Silly Sally is on her way to town walking on her hands upside down and going backwards when she meets a pig, sheep, dog and duck. She turns them all crazy and they are upside down. They fall asleep and a man dressed like a flower rescues them, but he gets infected and starts walking the same way. They make it into town and the whole village gets infected. It’s very catching. This is a frightening story in my mind. I can see some kids enjoying the madness.

Like my nephew. He thought this was crazy, but he liked it anyway. He kept asking why she’s walking like that. Why is her face so scary? I told her she is mad and to be wary of this kind of thing. In the end, it made him laugh and he gave this 3 stars too. What does he know.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly Sally is going to town for some reason, walking backwards and on her hands. On her way, she meets various animals and copies what they are doing until she's sleeping upside down. How does she get to town? I don't want to spoil anything for you.

This is my son's current favorite book. Like all kid's books, it starts out entertaining and gets less amusing every time you read it until you wish it would disappear under the couch for a few days. The art is good and the I actually liked the rhyme scheme but it wears very thin after several hundred reads.

[Rossy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit silly but the illustrations are SO cute! Neddy Buttercup and Sally look ADORABLE, and the sheep was my favourite!

[Ronyell · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Silly Sally” is another new installment from none other than favorite children’s book writer, Audrey Wood. This book details a silly woman’s attempts to get to town while walking backwards and upside down while meeting new and loony friends along the way. Audrey Wood’s rhyming proses and hilarious illustrations are sure to please many children over and over again.

Audrey Wood’s colorful and silly illustrations are the true highlights of this story. Silly Sally is an odd sight to see as her hair is displayed as wild and orange-colored hair and she wears an old-fashioned purple dress. Another character in this book that is unusual yet creative is Neddy Buttercup himself as he wears a hat full of buttercups and wears a costume that has buttercups all over his body. Also, Neddy’s green Peter Pan like tights provides a magical sense to his outfit and himself as he is the one who comes to Silly Sally and her companions’ aid. Audrey Wood’s writing is as imaginative as it is silly as she puts Sally’s adventures to get to town in a rhyming prose and gets even more creative when she details what the other animals do when they accompany Sally to town such as, the dog playing leapfrog with Sally or the pig doing a jig with Sally, with the words “dog” and “leapfrog” rhyming and “pig” and “jig” rhyming with each other.

“Silly Sally” is a wonderful and silly book by Audrey Wood and because of its innocent and silly illustrations and its whimsical and rhyming text, this book would be suitable to children ages three and older since the vocabulary in this book is extremely simple to understand and playful for young children. “Silly Sally” is surely a book that will make anyone laugh with joy and will be read again and again for many years to come.

From my Epinions Review:
http://www99.epinions.com/review/Sill...

[Relyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was a HUGE hit with my daughter when she was little. In fact, I had to read it to her so often that we both had it memorized. I thought I would try it with my kindergarteners even though it was a bit easy for them. They still loved it, but I think I'll use it much earlier in the year if I use it again.

[Melissa Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fun book is set up in a portrait/vertical format because the images within the story tend to be long and tall. The illustrations in the book are very bright and colorful which give a happy and upbeat mood to the book. Although the text of the story is more formal, the bolder print gives it a more fun and interesting look as well as enables the reader to give their undivided attention to the images on the page. For the most part, the text is incorporated within the images,without the use of borders, which gives the reader the sense that they are within the story instead of watching it take place from a distance. However, whenever a new character is introduced within the story and the character interacts with Silly Sally for the first time, the image is surrounded by a border. Boarders are also present when Neddy Buttercup interacts with each of the characters in the story. I believe the author's purpose for doing this was to place emphasis on the individual interactions within the story so that the characters can be more fully introduced and remembered. The text within the story also rhymes which, when read aloud, creates a fun and easy rhythm that is both enjoyable for the reader as well as the audience. Another interesting aspect of the illustrations in the story is that each proceeding picture of the road down which Silly Sally is traveling alludes to the next character that she is going to meet. For example, on the first page of the story it shows, off in the distance, the mud puddle where she will meet the pig, the dog house where she will meet the dog, the lake where she will meet the loon, etc. This makes the anticipation fun for the audience since they can guess at what is to come next.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It isn't my favorite children's book, but this one gets extra stars for the look of joy my kids have on their faces when it's read to them. Clearly, this is humor that three year olds can appreciate. Also, as I've discovered time and time again, the best children's art has a depth to it which encourages the young viewer to be drawn into it and find hidden little details. So, even if you don't get anything from the book directly, definately recommended to all parents of 2-3 year olds for what you get from the book indirectly.

[Corey Nieman · Rating 5 out of 5]

My niece loves it so…and she loves the tickling parts!!!

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silly Sally is a silly book. I enjoyed reading it. Fun pictures. (I had to go back to the beginning to catch one thing that will be completely missed in storytime, but a close look in a lap-read should reveal it.) Great rhyming. The repetition should be good for the toddler age. Colorful illustrations to keep attention.

6/25/10 A good choice for a storytime that can have all ages. Short and repetitive for the younger ones, and silly for the older. A good ending book since it's short and I had just a couple of minutes left. And since "silliness" started to become a theme with the books, it worked wonderfully!

9/28/16 & 9/29/16 Used in Toddler Puppy theme. There's a dog; I made it work. I pulled out the big book. The kids loved that. Both groups smiled and laughed. I was trying out a new way to show the book. Not sure how well it went. I'll ask the parents later.

[Becky Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silly Sally went to town walking backwards upside down! Along the way she met a...

As a preschool teacher I love this book. Not only because of the rhythm and rhyme but also because the illustrations tell what comes next in the story. Predictable books are very important for young children and this book is exactly what I tell parents to read to their children. After story time expect your child to "read" the story using the illustrations to assist them in storytelling.

[Yejide · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very catchy just by looking at the front page. The colorful illustration is a great way to keep the childrens attention. Children would find this book funny because of the animals mimicking everything Silly Sally does.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it its so incredible and amazing it is INCREMAZING

[Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was really no point in reading this to my kids

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun. Kept even some kids with the shortest attention spans I've ever encountered entertained until the end.

[Chance Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gosh I don't know if Ned Buttercup should be tickling Sally while she's sleeping, but she likes it and it becomes a great big ticklefest

[Yesenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and silly read perfect for children of all ages. The story is funny and silly while the pictures are cute and silly as well. Enjoyed it, because picture books are for big kids too! 😉

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It was cool.” -Ezra, 3

[Drake Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my mom's favorite children's books, which she bought for me now that I have a baby. My nieces love it, and I'll share it with my kid as soon as he's old enough for books.

[Yelissa torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yelisavetgrad hex

[Samantha Friedman]

Wow! I remember this book from my childhood! I picked it up because of the bright yellows, purples and blues on the cover and started reading it, going, "I know this book!" I love the watercolor done in this book. Even the end pages are a bright blue and the title pages are great. The text is bold and centered either at the top of the bottom of the page which allows you to look at the entire illustration or Sally doing whatever you just read she was doing. I like how when she goes to town you it's a full bleed horizontal two page picture but then when you goes to play leapfrog or singing there is a lot of white space and just a picture of the animal and then her and the animal on the next page. I also thought that you could see what animal was coming up next every time she went to town, they are foreshadowing the next page. Neddy Buttercup was my favorite part how he tickled everyone but the text was still rhyming. I thought the use of colors where a good choice, where Neddy and whatever he was doing to the animals were always boarded in green like his leggings and stem of his hat. You could always tell by the way the road was always going diagonally across both pages that Silly Sally was intending to end up somewhere.

[Courtney Hoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple read with fun colors and a fun story line that will engage readers. Personally, this book made me feel very happy. There was a lot of rhyming and repetition that made it easy to follow. The color scheme was very bright and happy as it was a silly story with animals and Sally doing silly things. To me this book didn't just show that it is okay to be silly, but it is okay to consider animals your friends. That animals should be treated nicely too. Above are all the reasons I gave it 5 stars... along with the fact that Sally's hair was red! I never see red haired characters, I love it because then those who have red hair feel accepted.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly Sally and a group of animals get to town in a most unusual fashion.

I totally thought I'd read this before, but as I cataloged a new copy for the Elementary today I realized I didn't remember any of it. I'm not sure I ever did read it. Which is crazy. I have known of the book and shelved it and recommended it to kids for years. Silly is a very appropriate word for the title. It is a most silly tale about an unusual parade. The story builds, adding a companion for Sally on her trip each page, and then waking them all up after a sleepy incident. The repetition and rhyme will be good for pre-readers to help them "read" along with someone else. Hand this to kids who love silliness.

[Brian Askins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very "silly" book to read and I enjoyed reading it as well. It follows the crazy story of how Silly Sally decides to get to town. Audrey Wood is very clever in finding different things that Sally can do backwards and upside down, and you can always count on a helpful rhyme as well. The rhythm of the book is also wonderful, everything just flows right off of your tongue as you read it. The illustrations are also wonderful, there are so many silly things to look at as you read. I would recommend this book for young readers.

[Ten_zillions · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Silly Sally" is a silly book about a silly girl with unusual ways. It introduces a variety of great rhyming words and teaches children that it is perfectly fine to march to the beat of your own drum. This is just another great social/emotional book about instilling confidence in young children. This would be great for pre-school aged children and there are great, colorful illustrations throughout the story making it engaging.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silly Sally is so silly! Sally walks to down by dancing backwards, and upside down. She meets many silly creatures on her adventure to town where they all play so happily all together towards town. When Sally meets a sheep, she and the other animals who have all followed backwards and upside-down all fall asleep until they are saved by Netty Buttercup who tickles all of Sally's friends awake and together they all head into town.

[Roben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect read-aloud for storytime for kids 2 and up. Sally is silly because she decides to walk to town upside down. But she encounters a few animals along the way that add more silliness to her trek. We read this in our toddler storytime today and everyone enjoyed it - be sure to make animal sounds and sing along with the loon! Lots of fun rhymes and just general silliness. Another great book from Audrey Wood.

[Tonia Holloway]

This is one of the fun books that could be used and read at anytime. I love rhyming books like this because it allows the kids to join in with the repeated phrases and catch onto the simple repetitiveness of the storyline. I would put this book in a area, such as the listening center so they could work on following along with the story.

[Moore, Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Silly Sally” by Audrey Wood is classified as juvenile fiction; it’s targeted audience is ages 2-kindergarten. It is a good companion for teaching children about individuality and positive thinking. The illustrations are full of energy and wacky; it has rhyming, humor and vocabulary enrichment.

[Olugbemisola Ogutuga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly Sally is about a girl who likes to walk backwards and upside down all the way into town.It is a good rhyming book

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silly Sally is a unique girl who loves doing fun and weird things--like walking to town on your hands and backwards. It is amazing who you will meet when doing this.