Nora's Room

From Publishers Weekly
The siblings who previously offered I Don't Want to Chase the Cat Today here create a jaunty picture-book adaptation of one of Harper's children's songs. "Crash! Bang! Crash! Bang! Boom! Something's going on in Nora's room!" begins this zippy flight of imagination. While Mom tends to two younger siblings, strange and very loud sounds emanate from behind Nora's bedroom door in a rollicking verse. All the while, Mom, the babies and the family dog envision what could be causing all the ruckus: "Sounds like hippos at a hippo hop./ Or when you pick up a piano and you let it drop./ / Like London Bridge is really falling down!/ Or a couple of giants are sitting on a town!" At book's end, when Nora's mother investigates, nothing is amiss. Readers are privy to the joke though, thanks to duPont's cheery slightly stylized artwork featuring muted ochre, pumpkin and melon tones with a bold outline. She shows a grinning Nora in a room filled with toy versions of everything mentioned in the previously imagined scenarios. This bouncy, fun-to-read-aloud outing may well encourage readers to seek out Harper's Nora's Room recording. Ages 3-8. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1-A playful, rollicking romp from the sister team that created I'm Not Going to Chase the Cat Today! (HarperCollins, 2000). "Crash! Bang! Crash! Bang! Boom! Something's going on in Nora's room-." Rhyming text with a beat speculates on what the commotion is all about. Colorful, imaginative illustrations with humorous details depict the possible happenings, such as a bear dancing with a moose and "a couple of gorillas playing duck, duck, duck-Goose!" Even the text fonts bounce along on the pages. A musical version of this story is found on Harper's CD Nora's Room (Alacazam, 1996). Pair this title with Rosemary Wells's Noisy Nora (Viking, 1999) for a boisterous storytime.Debbie Stewart, Grand Rapids Public Library, MI Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Ages 3-6. The house rocks with the noise coming from Nora's room, and Nora's mother, toddler twin siblings, dog, and bird all imagine (in simple rhyming lines) what's making the racket: it's a bear dancing with a moose; it's pumpkins falling off a truck; it's rhinos playing musical chairs. Harper duPont's high-spirited full-color illustrations flesh out the zany musings as they depict a thoroughly contemporary household, in which punky Mom, who has spiked hair and wears striped leggings and an apron, lets everyone know that she doesn't like to cook. When Nora is finally asked what's going on, she answers "Oh, nothing," but children will see that she's surrounded by the animals (stuffed, of course) that rampaged in her family's visions. A giggle-inducing book about noise, with a neat twist. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


School Library Journal
"A playful, rollicking romp. Rhyming text, colorful, and imaginative illustrations with humorous details."


Book Description
What's going on in Nora's room?Is it a Mooseon the Loose?Is it a game ofDuck, Duck,Goose?Take a look inside!


Card catalog description
There's such a racket coming from Nora's room that her mother imagines a series of outlandish events going on up there.


About the Author
Jessica Harper is an actor and singer-songwriter whose CDs of children's music have Won many honors, including the Parents' Choice Gold, Oppenheim Platinum, and NAPPA awards. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two daughters, Nora and Elizabeth.


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Sisters Harper and duPont team up once again (I'm Not Going to Chase the Cat Today!, 2000) to create a stridently silly tale to tickle funnybones. A cacophonous ruckus emanating from a young girl's room leads her mother to ponder what exactly is going on behind that closed door. Relayed in jaunty rhymes, parent, canine, and even the infant twins provide a hilarious commentary on the root cause of all that uproar. The absurdities escalate, as each new suggestion is more outrageous than the last: dancing bears, hopping hippos, and playful gorillas are all offered up as plausible sources. "Sounds like a rodeo right upstairs. Or a bunch of rhinos playing musical chairs!" However, when Nora's mother, unable to stand the suspense any longer, asks her what's going on, a demure Nora offers that classic response: "Oh, nothing." And the picture shows all of those possible culprits in their stuffed forms. The format of this romp is more akin to a comic strip than a traditional picture book, with the text contained within thought bubbles above various characters' heads. DuPont's wacky illustrations suit the offbeat tale and free-spirited Nora just fine; amidst pictures of two-stepping elephants and waltzing behemoths, a gleeful Nora can be discovered cutting loose. Loads of fun to read aloud—the text and art just beg for exaggerated theatrics on the reader's part: this is one rollicking ride. (Picture book. 3-8)


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