Noisy Night / The Complete Middle School Study Guides
Books That Belong On Paper Issue No. 31
Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.
NOISY NIGHT — A DELIGHTFUL READ ALOUD FOR THE PRESCHOOL SET
Noisy Night
by Mac Barnett, Brian Biggs (Illustrator)
Roaring Brook Press
2017, 32 pages, 8.3 x 0.4 x 11.6 inches, Hardcover
Noisy Night is a delightful read aloud for the preschool set. The book takes readers up, up, up through the floors of an apartment building and into the noisy nighttime goings-on of a silly cast of characters. For anyone who lives, or has ever lived, below someone in a building, this book breathes some fun into a familiar story.
Mac Barnett’s rhythmic, onomatopoeia-ic prose and Bigg’s illustrative sneak peeks make guessing the inhabitants of each floor easy for excited little ones, while the characters themselves (drawn to look just as loud as they sound) keep the story fresh. It’s easy to embellish the book with self-made sound effects since you can practically hear the music, not just of the actual musicians like the trumpet player and opera singer, but also of the sounds bouncing around the bright rooms in which guffawing cowboys, raucous cheerleaders, and elated cha-cha dancers let loose. The story ends with a final racket to quiet all rackets, the shouts of a grumpy old man. The book ends with the old man snoring soundly, and it’s hard not to imagine his now-shushed downstairs neighbors clutching pillows over their ears as this final nighttime noise echoes down to the ground floor.
THE EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO ACE SERIES IS LIKE BORROWING NOTES FROM THE SMARTEST KID IN CLASS
Everything You Need to Ace … The Complete Middle School Study Guides
by Workman Publishing
Abrams ComicArts
2017, 240 pages, 6.9 x 1.0 x 9.4 inches, Hardcover
Looking through these books, I find myself wanting to shout out phrases I haven’t thought of in decades: the Triangular Trade! Crispus Attucks! Isthmus of Panama!
The “Everything You Need to Ace…” series aren’t text books; they’re supposed to be the notes you failed to take in class. Flip through them before a test, or keep them by the sofa to pick up from time to time.
My middle-school informant feels they’re roughly accurate for what he’s studying in school. An adult informant — okay, me — feels they’re also useful if you find yourself parenting a middle schooler and want to not seem completely ignorant, but it’s been a really long time since you studied the Meiji Restoration.
The breezy format can lead to oversimplification: for example, the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani by American businessmen and the US Marines, which destroyed the Kingdom of Hawaii, has an anodyne description here. Each book has a detailed table of contents, but no index.
– Sara Lorimer
09/10/24
