Publisher: Chronicle Books (August 4, 2010)
Ages: 4 to 8 year olds
Source: From Publisher for Review
Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
Description from GoodReads:
Day meets Night and Night meets Day in this delightful picture book based on the Pixar short, Day & Night, which premiered with Toy Story 3 in 2010. Kids will delight in the way these two characters explore their differences and eventually realize how much they like and enjoy each other. A wonderful way to experience the magic of this Pixar short again and again and—rejoice in the attraction of opposites!
I first became aware of Day & Night through the animated short which aired prior to TOY STORY 3. The animated short was entertaining. Watching the interactions between the two characters was humorous. Consequently, I was expecting to really love the book as much as I did the animated version. Yet, I am not certain that I did love it as much as the video version.
This is definitely one of those books where the cover and packaging produces an automatic favorable impression. The black cover, bold white lettering, slick glossy cover, heavy-weight paper - of course it is going to be great. The text and the ability of the printed format to carry the book to another level should be ensuring success. However, despite all of those really cool and positive things, I was feeling only so-so when I finished reading it.
Is this a case where the animated version causes the reader to expect something different? I know I always say that the book is better than the movie but that is because I typically read the book before the movie. In this case, I saw the "movie" prior to the book. Did it spoil the book for me? Honestly, I don't know. All I do know is that even after a few read throughs, the book was okay - fun but not necessarily stellar.
I will say that I enjoyed how Day & Night shared special abilities each one had with one another. I felt that their message that their uniqueness plus the ability to overlap (even for short times) was part of an important message for young readers. Along with the sense that they each have a part of the other one with them at all times.
Will children enjoy looking at the illustrations and flipping through the pages? Yes. Will I share the book with my students. Yes. Will they like it? Probably so. Despite some minor concerns with the book, it is still a book that I would suggest to teachers to check out.
-Aly