A THAI LULLABY

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The Recycled Story I share with you today is the 1997 Caldecott Honor Book Hush! The story is a Thai Lullaby by Minfong Ho with pictures by Holly Meade. I hope my collage evokes the energetic persistence of the dutiful and caring mother who requests that a small mosquito, a long-tailed lizard, a lean black cat, a fat gray mouse, a bright green frog, a muddy fat pig, the glossy white duck, a loose-limbed monkey, an old water buffalo and a great big elephant be quiet so that her baby can sleep. The rhyme and repetition are great for preK/K story time. 

“Gray mouse, gray mouse,

don’t come squeaking.

Can’t you see that

Baby’s sleeping?”

Holly Meade’s illustrations capture the beauty and simplicity of the Thai home and the many “neighbors” that could disrupt the sleeping baby. Ultimately there is quiet and mother dozes off in the stillness at the windowsill.

Collage is in a brown frame, 16" x 20" not pictured here to avoicd glare from glass.

“Nothing’s stirring,

not a breeze,

As the moon drifts

up above the trees.

There is no noise now,

there is no sound.

Only Baby’s wide awake,

his eyes bright and round.”