Hush, a Thai Lullaby 

By Minfong Ho

Illustrated by Holly Meade

Awards: Caldecott Honor

A lovely Thai lullaby; beautiful rhythm and rhyme throughout the story.

Book Talk

It’s bedtime and a mother is putting her little one to bed in a hammock in a hut in Thailand.

She tries to quiet all the wonderful, noisy insects and animals that seem to be singing in their usual  nighttime chorus.

She sings a lovely, melodic poetic verse to each animal, trying desperately to keep the animals quiet so that her baby can get to sleep.

A favorite line from the story:

“Hush!  Who’s that leaping by the well?

“OP-OP, OP-OP”

A bright green frog.

Green frog, green frog, 

don’t come leaping

Can’t you see that 

Baby’s sleeping?

Green frog, green frog,

Don’t you cry,

My baby’s sleeping

right nearby.

The mother sings that same poetic song to each animal-the mosquito, lizard, cat, frog, mouse, pig, monkey, duck, water buffalo and elephant.  As we read and watch the mother interact with the animals that she is trying to ‘Hush’ (through the wonderful illustrations), we notice the baby getting out of the hammock and doing everything but sleep!

The student’s will love the sing-songy, repeated verse. It's guaranteed that they will join right in to try out the unique animal sounds as you read aloud!

Suggested Uses as a Mentor Text:

Book Genre: Folktale/ Free verse

Reading Workshop strategies: Connecting, Questioning, Visualizing 

Writing Workshop genre: Poetry

Curricular Themes: Diversity/ We Need Diverse Books

Minhong Ho’s bio: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/minfong-ho