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Good Night, Gorilla |  | Author: Peggy Rathmann
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.01
as of 7/30/2010 02:09 PDT details
Seller: atlanta-book-company
Rating:  223 reviews
Media: Board book
Edition: Brdbk
Reading Level: Baby-Preschool
Pages: 34
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 4.9 x 6.7 x 0.8
ISBN: 0399230033
EAN: 9780399230035
Publication Date: February 21, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780399230035 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
This book tells a cute story about a gorilla and his friends at the zoo.
Amazon.com Review
"Good night, Gorilla," says the weary watchman as he walks by the gorilla cage on his nightly rounds at the zoo. The gorilla answers by quietly pickpocketing the guard's keys, stealthily trailing him, and unlocking the cages of every animal the oblivious fellow bids goodnight to. Looking much like an exhausted father, the uniformed guard traipses home toward his cottage, while the lonely zoo animals softly parade behind him. The animals manage to slip into his bedroom and nestle unnoticed near his sleepy wife--until the bold little gorilla goes so far as to snuggle up beside her as she turns out the light. Author and illustrator Peggy Rathmann (creator of the Caldecott-winning Officer Buckle and Gloria) relies more on the nuances of her jewel-toned pictures than on words to pace this giggly bedtime story, making it perfect for observant preschoolers. In one inky-black spread, Rathmann lets only the shocked, wide-open eyes of the guard's wife tell us that the gorilla has been detected! Tiny details such as the faithful, banana-toting mouse and sky-bound pink balloon that appear in each picture keep this book fresh, magical, and fun--even after countless bedtime readings. (Baby to preschool) --Gail Hudson
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 223
 a new story every time July 24, 2010
Eliot's mom (Tennessee)
This story is great now for my 10 month old. He loves the pictures (there's very little text). I haven't made anything up sing songy to go with it, but I could. When he can talk, it'll be even more awesome because he can come up with his own narration and have a new story every time.
Wonderful art and simple story line July 16, 2010
Wendy Paull
I bought this board book to read to my 1 year old grandson. There are few words, but lots of details in the drawings. You can embellish the story with your own words or just look and describe the pictures to the delight of your toddler. They won't just be learning animals, they will learn colors as well. This book is humorous and fun. I totally recommend it.
 From Discipline Blockade to Panopticon: Foucault and Good Night, Gorilla June 19, 2010
Beta Dad (SoCal)
Peggy Rathmann's Good Night Gorilla is a parable in which zoo animals, led by a plucky gorilla named Gorilla, stage a bloodless revolt against their guard, Joe the zookeeper. As Gorilla, having stolen the zookeeper's keys, liberates each animal from its cell, it becomes clear that this story has little to do with zoo animals, but rather examines ways in which power and discipline are woven into even the earliest stages of human life.
As Joe, the hapless zookeeper, makes his rounds and says goodnight to all the animals, Gorilla stays close on his heels, releasing all his comrades. But it's not massacre they have on their minds (despite what Lion's chop-licking gaze at Joe's tender flesh might suggest) or even a chance to live in the wild. These animals simply want to upgrade their accommodations and sleep in the zookeeper's bedroom with him and his wife. In this way, the animals are very like human children who challenge the norms established by their parents and society, but whose rebellion is only in pursuit of innocuous ends.
And yet these animals live their lives behind bars. As far as we know they have committed no criminal act. The bars are only meant to prevent them from acting on their instincts to run away or to commit violence: their "criminal psychology," if you will.
Aspects of Michele Foucault's theory of "power-knowledge" help shed light on the seeming paradoxes of Good Night Gorilla, simply by asking us to theorize power not as a negative, obstructionist force, but rather as one productive of knowledge. Power is not necessarily hierarchical; it operates differently depending on the situation and the individuals who interact within that situation. Thus, the animals do not necessarily want to rise up against their keepers as we have become used to assuming, but only tentatively challenge some elements of the power structure. In addition, Foucault's theory of the role discipline and punishment plays in power relations provides a framework for understanding the remarkably positive outcome of the zoo animals' incarceration.
Foucault posits that one of the underpinnings of modern Western culture is the "carceral society," in which the technologies of punishment (and of incarceration, more specifically) extend to society at large. He refers to incarceration itself as the discipline blockade, and posits that of the technologies that originate within this blockade and radiate into public life, constant surveillance is the most powerful deterrent to violating societal norms. He uses the image of the Panopticon--Jeremy Bentham's design for the ultimate prison, in which cells are arranged around a central guard station that has visual access to every inmate at all times--as a metaphor for how institutionalized power controls society through surveillance, or even just the threat of it.
The zoo in Good Night Gorilla is both a discipline blockade and a literal iteration of the Panopticon, as all of the animals are simultaneously caged and exposed to the gaze of the authorities and the visitors. And thanks to the subversive Gorilla, the inmates are able to escape the discipline blockade. So why don't the animals maul the zookeeper and flee for the forest? It is both because of the figurative Panopticon, whose presence they have come to accept as ubiquitous and inescapable, and due to their comfort within the power structure. They have no ill will toward Joe--in fact, they long only to be closer to him by sleeping in and around his bed.
And what of the incorrigible Gorilla, who, with his tiny accomplice the mouse (who travels freely between the zoo and society, and yet is an outsider in both places) repeats his crime even after the zookeeper has returned all the animals to their cages following the first escape attempt? Foucault posits that recidivism does not indicate a failure of the penal system, but rather allows for the construction of a "criminal psychology" which supports the need for constant surveillance. Had Gorilla stayed in his cage after the first incident, there would appear to be no need for the technologies of his incarceration extending beyond the walls of the zoo.
Similarly, a child who is becoming more independent may experience a gradual dissolution of the discipline blockade (switching from a crib to a bed, for example), but will always feel the effects of panopticism, whether in the form of parental scrutiny, electronic monitors, school, work, marriage, or virtually any other institution he or she interacts with. And the child's recidivism, even if the crime is nothing more than trying to climb in bed with his or her parents, only proves that surveillance is necessary, since a child's instincts for mayhem, like an animal's, constitute a criminal psychology that must be tempered with discipline.
Good Night, Gorilla (Peggy Rathmann) June 5, 2010
Charles P. Rilee (NY, USA)
We LOVE Good Night, Gorilla and so does our 21-month-old child. Vivid, bright colors, a fun & imaginative story, and a surprise ending, all wrapped-up in a sturdy board book. The story is told primarily through the pictures with minimal text; a plus for imaginative readers. We make up words to describe what's happening in each scene as we read it to our child, and he also loves 'reading' it by himself! Highly recommended. Good Night, Gorilla
 WHAT IS THERE TO READ? June 1, 2010
Basiliki (New York, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading so many glowing reviews about this book I thought for sure it would be a hit with my son but sadly it was not and it's no wonder. Several of the pages in this book have no written word. As a mom who sells children's books and reads to her son several times a day, I am very disappointed with this book. I honestly do not see the appeal. But to each his own.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 223
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