Why Is the Sky Blue?

by Sally Grindley, Susan Varley

Rabbit wants to know why the sky is blue. He always asks about everything! His old friend, Donkey, knows a lot of things, and promises to teach him. Rabbit hops and bounces all over the page, while the Eeyore-like donkey patiently waits. In the end their roles are reversed in this delightful tale of friendship.

Genres: Animals, Childrens, Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

I came into children's books originally as Editorial Director of a nationwide children's book club, though I had written and directed a children's play while a student at Sussex University, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wrote my first two children's picture books in 1984 and was lucky enough that Anthony Browne wanted to illustrate the second - Knock Knock Who's There? It was published in 1985, is still going strong today and is one of my most successful.

Shhh! was published in 1991 and has known great success in France/Belgium in particular (close on 300,000 copies sold). It's success in the UK - it won the Children's Book Award - was hampered by the liquidation of its original publisher.

I became a full-time author in 1995 and now have some 150+ titles published, the most recent being L'Histoire du Soir in France, Belgium and Italy.

Feather Wars, published in 2003, was my first sortie into young fiction and was followed by the very successful Spilled Water, which has been published in some ten different languages and is very popular in schools as a class reader. It won the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (and I wound up being a 'Pointless' answer on the back of it!) Broken Glass came next and was a Sunday Times Book of the Week.

I'm currently working on picture books again and have plans to illustrate one of my own in the not too distant future - watch this space!

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Appealed to all my emotions

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh what a delightfully fun book about friendship and discovering the world and of course why is the sky blue. Loved this and I am sure my grandchildren will too.

[Melanie Hetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Donkey and Rabbit are friends who live in the same field. Donkey is old and enjoys spending his time eating grass and nodding his head. Rabbit, on the other hand, is young and spends a lot of time bouncing all around the field. One day Donkey told Rabbit that he was very old and knew many things. Rabbit immediately wanted to know everything. So, Donkey, on several occasions, offered to first teach Rabbit why the sky is blue. But Rabbit couldn't sit still for one lesson. He kept disappearing, learning on his own. One day, when Rabbit doesn't return from his bouncing around, Donkey goes to look for him. He finds Rabbit engrossed in ladybugs. They both learn that not every ladybug has the same number of spots.

A wise tale of inter-generational learning.

[Anna Chaddick]

This wonderful little picture book speaks to children and adults alike. The interaction between the two characters, an exuberant little rabbit who wants to know everything that the world can teach and old donkey who has forgotten the excitement of discovery, is beautifully crafted. Why is the Sky Blue is a wonderful book for children. I really did enjoy this book. It leaves the students thinking and will bring a lot of questions to mind.The illustrations are lovely and it was an easy read. I would recommend this book to children maybe in the second grade. I could use this in a classroom to illustrate how it is important to ask questions or how we can learn more from the questions we ask.

[Gertrud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny book!

[Conny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ned. Waarom is de hemel blauw.
Hij staat bij de V

[Kristina Silverbears · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story to remind us that we don't know everything.

[Lorna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a ok story where a young rabbit end up teaching the old donkey to remember his youth and different ways of how to learn things.