Smoky night
(Book)

Art techniques used: Powerful acrylic paintings with contrasting black and brightly colored hues. These paintings appear on a backdrop of mixed media collages and found objects.

"The paintings in this books were done in acrylics on Arches watercolor paper. The backgrounds were composed and photographed by the illustrator. The title type was hand-lettered by the illustrator. The display type was set in Kabel Ultra by Central Graphics, San Diego, California. The text type was set in Syntax Bolb by Thompson Type, San Diego, California. Color separations were made by Bright Arts, Ltd., Singapore. Printed and bound by Tien Wah Press, Singapore. Production supervision by Warren Wallerstein and Kent MacElwee. Designed by David Diaz and Lydia D'moch"--Colophon.

Daniel and his mother look out of their window at the smoky night below. There are looters on the street, fires in the distance. Daniel clutches his cat, Jasmine. But later, when they're forced to leave the apartment building, Jasmine can't be found. Mrs. Kim's cat is missing too. Where are they? They can't be with each other. Those cats don't get along ... This story is about cats and people who couldn't get along until a night of rioting brings them together. Winner of Caldecott medal, 1995.

When the Los Angeles riots break out in the streets of their neighborhood, a young boy and his mother learn the values of getting along with others no matter what their background or nationality.

530L,Lexile

Decoding demand: 68 (high),Semantic demand: 72 (high),Syntactic demand: 63 (high),Structure demand: 88 (very high),Lexile

Accelerated Reader AR,LG,2.4,0.5,10202.

Caldecott Medal, 1995; American Library Association Notable Children's Book 1995.