Early Bird on Sesame Street

by Linda Hayward, Tim Leigh (Illustrator)

When he wakes up earlier than usual, Big Bird observes the morning activities of other early birds in the city.

Genres: Childrens, Juvenile, Fiction

24 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Linda was born in California’s Central Valley, but raised and schooled in south Alabama, during the turbulent 1960’s. Married to her high school sweetheart, she and Tom have two grandchildren, Georgia and Joshua, who give her plenty of ideas for writing children’s stories.

Her first book in the series, “Marshall Visit’s the Hospital,” Marshall leads children around a sometimes scary world, showing them there’s nothing to be afraid of in instances of doctor visits or the possibilities of staying in a hospital. In subsequent books, Marshall will show there are responsibilities to be met as a contributor to the family: caring for pets, helping others, volunteering one’s time, and even accepting a new baby into the household. It is hoped that Marshall will teach children about their world in a fun and entertaining way. The reality is, they may at sometime need to protect themselves against strangers and bullies. Marshall is here to help build their self-confidence and not make them afraid to stand up for themselves.

Marshall, will also teach the importance of staying healthy and seeing the fun in fitness.

It is Linda’s hope that children from the ages three to eight can relate and benefit from Marshall and his friend’s experiences.

Her first in a series, MARSHALL VISITS the HOSPITAL, was published and released in October 2008. Linda has worked in childcare development and has been a teacher’s assistant to first graders. She has written several short stories, for Ben Romero’s book, CHICKEN FLUFF AND OTHER STUFF, and for author, Janice Stevens’ anthology, STORIES OF SERVICE. She is currently working on a history project for the Clovis Unified School District, to be published and released in 2009.

Reviews

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Big Bird awakened too early and can't go back to sleep.... I hate when that happens. But being an early bird allows him to see what goes on in the neighborhood before most people are up.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars (3/10 hearts). I’ve always liked this book, and enjoyed seeing the lives starting throughout the morning. There’s something a little bit heroic to me about those very early morning workers. Perhaps because this was the first book to introduce to me the idea of people being up and working during the sleeping hours, which was very comforting to me as a small child afraid of the night. (Thinking of bakers also being awake and imagining what they were doing legit was helpful.) Anyhow, I still have a bit of that old love and wonder left yet for this old book…

[Leila T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is super sweet and makes me wish I lived on Sesame Street.

[Nicole Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really love the art work.
The illustrations are so painstakingly detailed, you are transported NYC. You as the reader are there with big bird walking the streets. Even the background pictures are highly detailed. On one page big bird is interacting with a newspaper stand worker, but in the background there are garbage truck workers drawn out just as detailed as if they are a part of the story.
One of the best illustrated kids books around.

The story itself is simple and relatable.
Big bird wakes up early one morning and wanders around looking for someone to play with, not realizing that his friends are still asleep. By the time he gets back he is tired (from having woken up too early) and falls back asleep just as his friends are ready to play.

[Lois Dunahoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an excellent book. I would love to have this in my classroom one day. It would be very entertaining to my students. They may be familiar with the Sesame Street show so they may be very excited about it. We also may watch some of the show to build further up on it. I think this would be a good book for teaching your students about predicting and also possibly about routines.

[Cws]

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