Reviews for The salamander room
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Ages 4-6. On the first page of this picture book, a little boy about seven years old finds a salamander and brings it home. From that point on, the text relates his conversation with his mother about keeping the animal. The artwork, however, reflects the boy's plans, showing the imaginary transformation of his room from a conventional bedroom into a habitat suitable for his newfound friend. Although sometimes the boy's words sound unlikely for a child his age ("I will carpet my room with shiny wet leaves . . . "), his ideas remain essentially childlike. The vibrant full-color illustrations are stylistically reminiscent of Van Allsburg's soft-edged paintings, while conceptually they recall Sendak's transformation of Max's room into a forest in Where the Wild Things Are. A well-designed mood piece with story hour possibilities. ~--Carolyn Phelan
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
In response to his mother's queries about what he will need to do in order to make a little salamander comfortable if he keeps it in his room, Brian imagines appropriate changes: he'll bring in moss and leaves, crickets and frogs, insects and birds, and, finally, he'll plant trees and open the room to the sky. Meanwhile, in luminous, carefully imagined paintings, Johnson depicts the room being transformed into the chameleon's forest home. A valid lesson, delivered with sensitivity to both the child and his captive. Copyright ŠKirkus Reviews, used with permission.
School Library Journal
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PreS-Gr 2-- Brian's determination to keep a salamander in his room is met with quizzical concern on the part of his mother--``Where will he sleep?. . . where will he play?'' Inquiries are answered with imaginative solutions that will be familiar to all those who have tried to convince a parent to let them have a pet. Johnson's lush, shadowy paintings depict each addition to the cumulative scenario as Brian's cozy bedroom is gradually transformed into a dark green forest that overflows the pages as the fantasy becomes more elaborate. From its rich green endpapers through its handsome typeface, this is a beautifully designed mood piece. The subtle implication that animals require responsible handling is positive, although readers caught up in the fantasy are never brought back to mundane reality. Johnson's salamander is realistically depicted, yet imbued with personality, whether wistfully peering through the bedroom window to see his forest friends or snuggled under leaves sleeping next to Brian. He will have young readers yearning for salamander rooms of their own. --Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Fiction: PB A boy wants to keep an appealing orange salamander in his room and imagines how he can keep the animal happy by planting trees, encouraging insects and birds to enter, and finally removing the roof to let in the rain. The softly realistic paintings, full of warm dappled sunlight, show an increasingly crowded room which takes up more and more of the page as the boy's fantasy increases. Horn Rating: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration. Reviewed by: lr (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly
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When Brian finds an orange salamander in the woods, his mother offers many familiar reasons not to keep it. ``Where will he sleep?'' she asks, and notes that the salamander ``will miss his friends in the forest.'' But Brian has a plan. If he needs food for the salamander, he'll bring insects to his room, and then, of course, he'll have to bring birds and bullfrogs to eat the insects. He'll put trees and ponds in his room and ``lift off the ceiling'' to give them room to grow. By book's end, it is Brian who is living in the salamander's room--a forest full of lush trees, where Brian sleeps in his bed under the shadowed night sky. Johnson's ( No Star Nights ) atmospheric illustrations are excellent in both design and execution; Mazer's text offers fitting tribute to a child's perseverance and imagination. Ages 4-8. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
PW described this ``atmospherically illustrated'' tale about a boy's plans to accommodate a salamander as a ``fitting tribute to a child's perseverance and imagination,'' Ages 4-8. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
