Good Night, Gorilla

September 6, 2004
Peggy Rathmann's Good Night, Gorilla returns as a hefty, oversize board book. Of this tale of a sneaky simian who escapes from the zoo, PW said, "Universally understandable subject matter and a narrative conveyed almost entirely through pictures mark this as an ideal title for beginners." .

April 11, 1994
Universally understandable subject matter and a narrative conveyed almost entirely through pictures mark this as an ideal title for beginners. A zookeeper makes his nightly rounds, bidding good night to a gorilla, a lion, a giraffe and so on. He doesn't know that the gorilla has procured his keys and is unlocking each animal's cage; a jungly crowd files quietly behind the keeper as he walks home and crawls into bed. When his wife says, ``Good night, dear,'' seven voices reply, ``Good night,'' and it's up to the missus to return the mischievous menagerie. Although Rathmann's illustrations lack the artistic ingenuity she displayed in Ruby the Copycat and Bootsie Barker Bites , the author/artist connects with her audience on several levels. Children can identify with the animals, who have toys in their cages (the elephant has a plush Babar) and resist being left alone in their ``rooms'' all night; they will also enjoy some minor subplots. Some details prove questionable (for example, one overdrawn visage of Mrs. Zookeeper seems blurry, particularly because she's rendered with a few simple lines elsewhere), yet these considerations take a back seat to Rathmann's comic exuberance. Ages 3-6.

July 1, 1994
PreS-Gr 1-A mischievous little gorilla lifts the zoo keeper's keys on the first page of this sparely worded picture book. The brightly colored illustrations basically tell the entertaining story as the gorilla tags along behind the man, gleefully freeing all of the other animals, who then follow him single file into his neat little house. It is his unruffled wife who, without disturbing her sleepy husband, calmly returns the creatures to their cages. Even she, however, does not notice the wily gorilla, who, still in possession of the keys, returns to the house, slips into the big bed, and curls up contentedly between the people for the night. A clever, comforting bedtime story.-Jan Shepherd Ross, Dixie Elementary Magnet School, Lexington, KY

July 1, 1994
Ages 4-6. In this limited-word picture book, a gorilla follows the zookeeper as he says good-night to his charges. What the zookeeper doesn't know is that the mischievous gorilla has snatched his keys and is letting out the animals almost as fast as the zookeeper can lock them up. The animals follow him to his house and into the bedroom, where, in an amusing pitch-black spread, a pair of worried wide-open eyes let the zookeeper's wife know that she and her husband are not alone. Jaunty four-color artwork carries the story and offers more with every look. ((Reviewed July 1994))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1994, American Library Association.)