Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Jen Corace (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

It's not fair! All Little Owl wants is to go to bed at a reasonable hour, like his friends do. But no . . . Mama and Papa say little owls have to stay up late and play. So Little Owl spends all night jumping on his bed, playing on the jungle gym, and doing tricks on his skateboard but he's hooting mad about it ! Children who have a hard time going to bed will love this fun twist on the universal dilemma.

The New York Times - Daniel Handler

Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace strike a beautiful balance between story and art in Little Pea…Rosenthal's text never gets too cute—O.K., maybe "they lived hap-pea-ly ever after" is pushing it—and Corace's illustrations similarly provide bounce and verve without rolling their way into treacle. The sequel, Little Hoot, is just the kind of follow-up one wants. The same thing only different, it gives us a family of owls whose baby does not want to stay up late. Corace's illustrations are more daring, throwing a wider color spectrum into the mix and showing a slight anime influence. The book feels familiar right away without losing its sense of surprise—such a pleasure to read that even "they owl lived happily ever after" can be forgiven. More!

The Washington Post - Carolyn Hax

Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace's Little Hoot shares the general roots…of the Olivia and Madeline books, by drawing nutrients from the rich realities of raising those little tyrants known as children.

Publishers Weekly

The team that pertly turned the eat-your-vegetables dilemma upside-down with Little Peaagain puts reverse psychology to work, this time for the sake of bedtime. Like his legume counterpart, Little Owl has a great life-except for one thing: "All my other friends get to go to bed so much earlier than me! Why do I always have to stay up and play? It's not fair!" This follow-up lacks the full-strength visual quirkiness of Little Pea: the peas' stripped-down roundedness (they were essentially a family of heads) made everything they did even funnier. The considerably more anthropomorphized owl family, on the other hand, feels recognizable, which blunts the comic impact of their bizarro worldview. Even so, this outing is not to be missed. Rosenthal and Krouse plant little gags throughout-when Little Hoot is seen at school, the lesson on the chalkboard reads "who/ whom/ whose"-and they sustain the joke with such twisted-logic gems as this one from Papa Owl: "I don't give a hoot what time your friends go to bed. In this family, we stay up late." Ages 3-up. (Mar.)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2- Rosenthal successfully continues her twisted take on traditional childhood dilemmas that she began in Little Pea (Chronicle, 2005). Little Hoot is a happy owl except at bedtime. All of his woodland friends get to go to bed early, but he does not. "Why do I always have to stay up and play? It's not fair!" Little Hoot tries to convince his parents to let him retire early, only to be forced to play for one more hour. According to his father, he must stay up late if he wants to grow up to be a wise owl. His mother tells him, "Ten more minutes of playing, Mister. And please don't ask me again." Little Hoot flies straight to bed ignoring his parents' offers of bedtime stories and glasses of water. Detailed ink and watercolor illustrations are uncluttered and placed on plenty of white space. Text and art convey parental love, filial annoyance, and everything in between. This fun reversal of traditional bedtime woes is sure to be enjoyed by many children.-Catherine Callegari, formerly at Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH

Kirkus Reviews

Another captivating, crowd-pleasing twist on a familiar domestic issue from the creators of Little Pea (2005). Little Hoot likes school, and doesn't mind practicing pondering and staring like a good owl-but hates, hates, hates having to stay up late. All of his friends go to bed early, so why can't he? "Rules of the roost," says Papa Owl. "Stay up and play for one more hour and then you can go to sleep," says Mama Owl. "When I grow up, I'm going to let my kids go to bed as early as they want," grumbles Little Hoot, slouching off for another hour's fort-building, skateboarding and bed-jumping. Corace puts her big-headed birds in human dress and surrounds them, along with the occasional leaf-decorated bed or chair, with plenty of white space. Even very young children will respond to the outsized outrage that Little Hoot expresses in every simply drawn line and-when the long hour is up at last-the joyous release with which he bounds into bed without even waiting for a bedtime story. Parents too will find this droll switcheroo a hoot and a half. (Picture book. 4-6)

Product Details

• Interviews & Essays

Interviews & Essays

What encouraged you to do another book similar to Little Pea?

Victoria had been asking me to come up with a “sequel” for a while. I struggled with it for a long, long time. I just couldn’t “see” what the sequel would be. It was only until I looked at it totally differently—continuing not the story of Little Pea exactly but continuing the INVERSION premise—that it finally fell into place.

What do you like about the images Jen gives to the story?

Everything! I love Jen’s style. I can’t imagine Little Pea or Little Hoot looking any other way, or being done by any other illustrator. Those books were born to be drawn by Jen.

How much collaborating do you do together?

A fair amount, but all through the mail. Jen and I have never actually sat down and collaborated; we’ve never even met! Victoria sends me sketches at various stages and then we (Victoria and I) talk about them, compare notes, etc.

How have kids reacted to this book when you read it aloud?

Well, luckily, happily, so far so good. They seem to love the bedtime inversion thing, and of course, they adore Jen’s illustrations.

In the text there are quite a few plays on words. Do kids pick up on these?

Absolutely!!! Just yesterday I was doing a school presentation. I read Little Pea first, and then Little Hoot. At the end a lot of the kids shouted out, “Hey, you said, ‘owl lived happily ever after’ just like, ‘hap-pea-ly ever after’ in Little Pea!” They get it.

Is Little Hoot modeled after anyone?

Nope.

How do bedtimes play out in your house?

My kids are big-ish now—10, 13, and 14. No bedtime struggles anymore. . . . Our struggle involves getting OUT of bed. No one wants to wake up in the morning, least of all, me! I love sleeping. . . .

Will there be more books like Little Pea and Little Hoot?

Yep! There is one more coming . . . the last and final in what will now be a veritable trilogy. We didn’t realize there would be three in this series when we first made Little Pea, but I’m excited that it turned out to be this way. Can you guess what the third and last title/story is? . . .