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The Backward Day

The Backward Day

by Ruth Krauss, pictures by Marc Simont

$15.95
$15.95
Ages 3–7 Ages 5–8 American Literature Children's Literature
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Imagine your whole day lived backwards, from beginning to end. When you get up, you'd put on your overcoat first, then your shirt and pants, and over those your underwear, because after all, backwards is backwards, and on a backwards day backwards is the way everything has to be. You'd walk downstairs backwards and sit at the table backwards, and when your parents greeted you in the morning you'd say, or course, "Good night." But how long can backwards day go on? Just long enough for a bright little boy to reverse the spell he's put on the whole household and make everything to go back to normal. The Backward Day is a charming 1950 picture book by the Caldecott–prizewinning team of Marc Simont and Ruth Krauss. Simont's bold illustrations bring to life a humorous and engaging reversal of ordinary reality that will enchant young children and their parents.

Additional Book Information

Series: NYRB Kids
ISBN: 9781681378428
Pages: 40
Publication Date:

Praise

Ruth [Krauss] broke rules and invented new ones, and her respect for the natural ferocity of children bloomed into poetry that was utterly faithful to what was true in their lives.
—Maurice Sendak

The season for giving books to children comes again, and this column will be directed to parents, aunts, uncles who wish children to "make friends with books". . . . [F]or youngsters under 7 we call attention to . . . The Backward Day, by Ruth Krauss.
—Los Angeles Times

For some reason, young children get an absurd kick out of doing things backward, or spelling words backward, or otherwise behaving contrariwise for comic effect. . . . Ruth Krauss’s 1950 picture book, The Backward Day . . . speaks directly to this anarchic impulse. . . . Marc Simont's appealing drawings reflect . . . the timeless sweetness of a family joke shared.
—The Wall Street Journal

The Backward Day by Ruth Krauss, illus. by Marc Simont, celebrates one boy's revelry as he tries to experience his day backward. With a bold palette, Simont's inky illustrations enchant, as do the youngster's family, whose 1950s primness gives way as they gamely play along with the boy's antics.
—Publishers Weekly

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