Welcome to the last day (Day 30) of our Picture Book Month, Read Share Celebrate Adventure.
Night Cars by Teddy Jam ( Matt Cohen) and Illustrated by Eric Beddows
It is late at night in the city. From his father’s shoulder, a sleepless baby watches the snow drift down from the sky onto the busy street below. What are all those noises? What are all those lights? His tired but patient father explains everything, from the bustle of taxis swishing through the slush to the grinding and slamming of the early-morning garbage trucks.
Teddy Jam’s lyrical prose and Eric Beddows’s detailed illustrations cast Night Cars in that magical light between sleep and waking. This classic baby book, now available in a board book format, is a perennial favorite.
Winner of the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award 1987
Source – http://houseofanansi.com/products/night-cars
Now since we haven’t had our own story time with the book, we found the story read aloud online. As soon as our turn comes up at the library, we will update you with our story time experience.
About the Author –
Teddy Jam (Matt Cohen) was the pseudonymous author of many wonderful children’s books, including Night Cars (which Michele Landsberg called “the Canadian Goodnight Moon”), This New Baby, and The Year of Fire, The Stoneboat, The Kid Line and The Fishing Summer, now collected in the anthology How We Were. He was also a novelist who won the Governor General’s Award for his last novel, Elizabeth and After.
Source – http://houseofanansi.com/products/night-cars
I’ve also found a few great articles about Matt to share (especially if you are interested to find out why he used the name Teddy Jam)
- Matt Cohen [ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/matt-cohen/ ]
- The sweet second life of Matt Cohen by Jeffrey Canton [ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/the-sweet-second-life-of-matt-cohen/article25455926/ ]
About the Illustrator –
Eric Beddows (a.k.a. Ken Nutt), was born in Woodstock, Ontario in 1951. He studied at York University and now lives and works in Stratford, Ontario. His awards for illustration have included the 1984 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award (1984 and 1986), the I.O.D.E. (Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire) Book Award (1988), School Library Journal’s Best Books Award (1992) and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Book Illustration (1996).
Source – http://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ve/PicturePerfect/eric_beddows.html
kaelyn's book club 