A Greyhound, a Groundhog
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
"But what Emily Jenkins and Chris Appelhans’ lyrical collaboration is really about is the intoxicating thrill of friendship, and boundless joy of play..." –The New York Times
A “merry read-aloud.” –The Wall Street Journal
Winner of the 2018 Zena Sutherland Award for Best Text
From a heavyweight author and illustrator duo comes a delicious tongue twister of a picture book that features a little round greyhound and a little round groundhog.
With very spare, incredibly lively language, this is an entertaining read-aloud, with two amazing—and oh-so-adorable—characters at its heart.
When a greyhound meets a groundhog, wordplay and crazy antics ensue. The two animals, much like kids, work themselves into a frenzy as they whirl around and around one another. (Around, round hound. Around, groundhog!) The pace picks up (Around and around and astound and astound!), until they ultimately wear themselves out.
“Jenkins’s masterful text is deceptively simple.” —NPR on Toys Meet Snow by Emily Jenkins
“Appelhans, whose career up to now has been in animated films such as Coraline, is a revelation.” —Booklist, Starred, on Sparky!, illustrated by Chris Appelhans
“Appelhans makes an auspicious picture book debut with strikingly beautiful watercolor and pencil illustrations. His style, reminiscent of Jon Klassen’s, incorporates a muted color palette, but with a slightly softer, rounder quality, while also weaving in visual deadpan humor.” —The Horn Book
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dedicated to picture book icon Ruth Krauss, this elegant pas de deux between two unlikely creatures recalls the sense of uninhibited play that Krauss brought to her own work. "A hound./ A round hound./ A greyhound," Jenkins (Toys Meet Snow) starts, accompanied by Appelhans's watercolor of a curled-up dog, its abstract form captured in a few graceful strokes. "A hog./ A round hog./ A groundhog," she continues, as Appelhans (Sparky!) paints a fat, furry fellow with tiny ears and a shy smile poking its head up aboveground. For "a greyhound, a groundhog,/ a found little/ roundhog," the artist shows the dog approaching the startled rodent, and the two soon make friends: "Around, round hound./ Around, groundhog!" The animals play, the words play, and the faster the creatures circle, scamper, and bound, the more mixed up the words get ("A greyhog,/ a ground dog,/ a hog little hound dog"). Appelhans paints the dog and hog cavorting through an idyllic world ("Astound!" Jenkins exclaims, as they surprise a group of butterflies), and their adventure celebrates the sounds of words, the lure of rhythm, and the joy of movement. Ages 3 7.
