The Hello, Goodbye Window

Written by Norton Juster

Illustrated by Chris Raschka

Book Review by Brianna Celio

Bibliographical Data:

Title: The Hello, Goodbye Window

Written by: Norton Juster

Illustrated by: Chris Raschka

Publisher:Michael Di Capua Books

Publication Date: Mary 15, 2005

ISBN: 0-7868-0914-0

Pages: 32

Grade Level: Pre k, K-1

Genre: Children’s Picture Book

Language: English

Hardcover: $1.99 (Barnes and Noble)

Summary:

The Hello, Goodbye Window is about a young girl who visits her Nanna and Poppy’s house. In front of the house that looks into the kitchen is a window that means more to the little girl than just a view. She feels like it is a magical window that can be a mirror to see her and her grandparents or a view to the garden or stars. She says hello to many different things outside that window and says goodbye with kisses to her grandparents next to the window as well. This window means a lot to the little girl as it does to visiting her grandparents because of the memories she creates with them and the hello, goodbye window that she wants in her house when she’s older.

Book Review:

I think this book is great for children to read and relate to. Every child loves visiting their grandparents or loved ones and have a specific memory from their house when visiting. This story gives off a warm feeling of love the grandparents and little girl share. This book will have children thinking about or can even write about their own traditions or activities they always do when visiting their own grandparents or loved ones. The illustrations are great as well, they show a perfect reflection of what is going on in the text and are very colorful and detailed as well. I feel that this would be very hard for a child in kindergarten to read on their own however would be great for them to be read to and do activities following the book.

Author Biography:

Norton Juster was born on June 2, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. He began to write while in the Navy and published his first book in 1961 and won the George C. Stone Centre for Children’s Book Award for The Phantom Tollbooth. This book was very popular to children and adults around the world. He then wrote the book The Hello, Goodbye Window in 2005 and won the Caldecott Medal for Chris Raschka’s illustrations in 2006.

Literary Element Analysis:

A literary element that stood out to me in this book was the illustrations. The family is bi-racial which is very interesting in a children’s book. Also, the illustrations looked like they were drawn with water colors making the pages colorful and almost like a kid drew the pictures. The children can relate to these drawings because of neat yet sloppy drawings of the characters. The illustrator also matches the text to the pictures as well. For example, during the part where the little girl talks about the kitchen table and how it has all kinds of stuff she can use to draw and how the shelves has glass jars with things in them, the illustrator has every detail that the little girl talks about in the picture making this a great way for the child to understand the text even more and point out to the teacher what the author is describing in the picture. Illustrations are very important, especially for beginner readers because the pictures help them understand the text when they can’t really read for themselves quite yet.