When Jack Goes Out

Award:
A Junior Library Guild Selection

• School Library Journal - March, 2010
• SCHORIES, Pat
• When Jack Goes Out
• Illustrated by the author.
• Boyds Mills, Feb. 2010. RTE $13.95. ISBN 978-1-59078-652-9.

PreS-Gr 2 - When Jack is put out for the night, something extraordinary happens. As the pup looks longingly at his family inside the house, out of the sky comes a flying blue car packed with robotlike visitors. These aliens make quick work of turning Jack's doghouse into a play house as they lounge on his blanket, overturn his water dish, and leap from the roof. The real fun begins when they unhook Jack's leash and explore the yard. The pup and his newfound friends dig in the sandbox and swim around in the pond. The night visitors like him so much that they want to take him back with them, but he manages to slip out of his leash before he can be whisked into the sky and is reunited with his young owner. Schories has created another wordless story that is easy to follow and has a timeless quality. The illustrations are full of whimsy, and the joy of both Jack and the visitors is evident as they frolic across the pages. Pair this with Nina Laden's The Night I Followed the Dog (Chronicle, 1994) for a storytime that will have listeners imagining what their own pets may get into when they are not around. -Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York City

Awards:
Jack Wants a Snack has been selected for the 2009 Texas 2x2 Reading List by the Texas Library Association.

Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education.

• The Horn Book Magazine - September/October 2008
• Jack Wants a Snack - Pat Schories
• 32 pp. Front Street 9/08
• isbn 978-1-59078-546-1 $13.95
• (Preschool)

Audiences familiar with any of the three wordless books about Jack the dog will recognize his young owner in the background of this entry's first spread. But here the focus is on the boy's younger sister and her efforts to keep Jack away from her backyard tea party. It's not a fancy affair…the table is a cardboard box and all she's serving is popcorn...but Jack is decidedly not welcome. The girl does give Jack one piece of popcorn before huffily turning her back on him to feed her guests...dolls, stuffed animals, and a caped action figure. In single- and double-page spreads, the action-filled pictures keep pre-readers intrigued and on their toes by switching perspectives and zooming in and out (allowing young viewers glimpses of a curious chipmunk). Three horizontal pictures on one page show girl and dog joining forces, chasing the popcorn-stealing chipmunk from one end of a woodpile to the other. Kids will laugh when the girl's quickly fashioned trap (box, stick, string) catches Jack and not the chipmunk thief, now busily helping itself to the abandoned bag of popcorn. Just right for "reading" together and for listening to preschoolers tell the story on their own; be sure to have kids compare the almost-identical front and back endpapers, whose small differences sum up the entire satisfying tale. j.m.b.

Breakfast for Jack, Jack and the Missing Piece

• Publisher's Weekly 12/04
• Breakfast for Jack
• Jack and the Missing Piece
• both by Pat Schories
• Front Street Books, an Imprint of Boyds Mills Press

With these two wordless stories, Schories (He's Your Dog) introduces Jack, an eager red-spotted terrier. Like all good comic dog heroes, Jack is much beloved but also mildly hapless and misunderstood...which only serves to make him more winning. In Breakfast for Jack, the household is caught up in a typical weekday morning rush, and so the poor dog inadvertently gets none. Schories beautifully conveys Jack's bewilderment at his neglect: one pages shows Jack going back and forth between his empty bowl and the cat's full one. But not to worry...a red-headed boy of six or so, finally remembers to feed the pooch in the nick of time. Jack and the Missing Piece finds the canine hero banished and sulking after pestering the boy and a friend during a session of building blocks play. When the toy used to crown the boys' structure goes missing, Jack seems to possess both motive and opportunity. But some dogged detective work on Jack's part reveals the real culprit: the cat! The cozy familiarity of the plots, the sweet-natured hero and Schories's expert comic pacing of the vignettes (thanks to a skillful combination of spot drawings and full page renderings) adds up to plenty of fun and lots of openings for youngsters to add their own narration, dialogue, and woofs. Ages 2-6.

• School Library Journal
• SCHORIES, Pat.
• Breakfast for Jack. ISBN 1-932425-16-0. LC 2004046916.
• Jack and the Missing Piece. ISBN 1-932425-17-9. LC 2004046954.
• ea vol: illus. by author. unpaged. CIP. Front St. 2004. Tr $13.95.

PreS-Gr 2-These wordless books chronicle ordinary events in the life of an engaging orange-and-white terrier.

In the first story, Jack tries to bring attention to his empty food bowl as his humans hurry to eat their breakfast, get dressed, and rush out the door. Luckily, the dog's school-aged master pauses on the front walk and remembers to dish up the can he had opened earlier. Schories's likeness of a bouncing barker is right on target and her pastel palette and line drawings are pleasingly retro. In the second tale, the pup repeatedly knocks down castles carefully created by his owner and a friend. When a decorative block disappears soon after, the children accuse the pooch of stealing it and Jack cleverly exposes the real thief. As the boy hugs him to apologize, the dog eyes the new structure being built nearby. Both titles will appeal to young listeners, but could also prove useful to teachers practicing story writing by assigning text writing to accompany these well-paced images.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA

• Each month Teaching Pre K-8 reviews outstanding products for the classroom:
• Breakfast for Jack
• Pat Schories
• Front Street Books, an Imprint of Boyds Mills Press

Wordless picture books are one of these truly great teaching aids we forget about in today's text-heavy electronic world, yet we know of nothing better to encourage a sense of story in a child than these books.

There are clear beginnings, middles and ends in wordless books. They illustrate character, setting and action with little chance for misinterpretation. They're a great equalizer in those first days when children who have mastered the rudiments of reading seem to shine at the expense of the struggling reader or the child who has been exposed little to books.

Pat Schories is a master at creating wordless books. Breakfast for Jack is a super, single-situation book that's accessible for most children. It's the story of a family who feeds themselves, feeds their cat... and forgets breakfast for their dog, Jack. This is doubly surprising as the cover art depicts Jack sleeping on the bed with his young master. It's a wonderful discussion starter about responsibility.

The art is just perfect; there's no mistaking what's going on in every frame so retelling the story is not a problem for kids.

Ms. Schories has also "written" two other wordless books about Jack and his adventures. Check the Front Street website for more information.

The Jack books are $13.95 at your local bookstore and are suggested for ages three to eight. As with all good books, there are many more things that can be done with them at other than suggested ages.

• Marya Jansen-Gruber
• Editor
• Through The Looking Glass Children's Book Review
• Breakfast for Jack
• Pat Schories
• Picture Book/Wordless Book
• Ages 2 to 4
• Front Street, 2004, 1-932425-16-0

...this charming little wordless book is sure to make dog lovers of all ages smile. The dog's obvious puzzlement and confusion, not to mention loss of heart is both funny and touching. Fans of the "Biscuit" books will recognize the artwork from those stories.

Jack and the Night Visitors:

Awards:
A Junior Library Guild Selection

Best children's books of the year - Bank Street College of Education

CCBC Choices 2007

"A good vehicle for children to tell a story in their own words, helping them to develop pre-reading skills such as sequencing and employing descriptive language." School Library Journal

• The Horn Book - July/August 2006
• Jack and the Night Visitors
• Pat Schories, illustrator
• ISBN 1-932425-33-0 $13.95
• (Preschool)

In their third wordless book (Breakfast for Jack and Jack and the Missing Piece, rev. 1/05), a boy and his dog Jack meet some friendly space aliens one night. From their bedroom window, Jack and the boy watch as a tiny spaceship lands on the roof and a dozen small aliens pile out, waving congenially. After playing with the boy's toy trucks and cars, they request a snack, then munch away on cornflakes, one alien even perched on the boy's knee. Panic ensues when, unable to resist the little guy's charm, the boy captures the alien in a jar. The rest race to their ship and are quickly joined by their friend, freed when Jack lifts the lid in pursuit of a leftover cornflake. Despite his loss, the boy smiles at Jack as they watch the aliens fly off. Boy and dog, with their matching freckles, facial expressions, and orange hair/fur, are plenty appealing, but the exuberant aliens steal the show with their goofy antics and appearance (picture mini-tinmen with luminous Christmas-bulb eyes, noses, and antennae). The humorous details in the art (the spaceship looks like a VW bug without tires), the story's brief suspense, and the book's small trim size make this exactly right for pre-readers to "read" to an adult or enjoy on their own. J.M.B.

• Booklist - April 15, 2006
• Jack and the Night Visitors
• by Pat Schories
• ISBN 1-932425-33-0
• PreS---K

After seeing a strange light through the bedroom window, Jack the dog and his boy discover that a little spaceship has landed on the roof outside their window. A crew of tiny, jolly robotlike aliens soon make themselves at home in the boy's room, and the earthbound hosts overcome their initial trepidation as they feed the curious creatures and watch them explore. When the boy traps an alien in a jar, however, the others run for the ship, and Jack steps in to help the tiny captive escape. From the series that began with Breakfast for Jack (2004) and Jack and the Missing Piece (2004), this wordless picture book offers colorful illustrations that have a lucid narrative thread as well as many rewarding details. Schories, best known as the illustrator of Alyssa Satin Capucilli's Biscuit books, shows strong visual storytelling skills here, and her high-interest premise and accessible artwork will make this book a rewarding choice for children not yet ready to read on their own. Carolyn Phelan