The Way to Start a Day

by Byrd Baylor

Book Overview

Beautiful paintings highlight the ways various peoples from around the world welcome the sun and the start of a new day in this Caldecott Honor-winning picture book.

Some people say there is a new sun every day, and that it begins its life at dawn and lives for one day only. They say you have to welcome it.

From cavemen, to the Aztecs, to the ancient Egyptians, Baylor Bird describes the ways that people throughout history and the world celebrated the dawn. By the end you may be inspired to create your own song for the sunrise.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684156512
• ISBN13: 9780684156514
• Release Date: July 1978
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.4" x 10.3"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

What a way to start a day - what a book for any age!!!

This beautiful book is one I use frequently. It is priceless in terms of teaching honor to the earth and her people.

Boyd Byrd is a genius

The illustrations add so much to the simple beauty of this book. The story is sweet and uplifting. Well done.

not the same ol' children's book

Longtime collaborators Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall again offer kids a new look and sound, this time in the service of starting the day with a ritual to greet the sun. Illustrations are flowing and colorful, more abtract than most children's books, and the text encourages connections to the past and to the earth.

Morning Rituals

I am an elementary school teacher. Byrd Baylor has helped me teach reading, and loving to read, to first through fourth grades. It seems the more reluctant readers are most easily hooked!Each school morning in September, I read The Way To Start A Day to my class. By the end of September, children are saying the words with me. Soon, kids volunteer to read the book, alone, or in pairs, depending on their abilities. The children take extra copies from the classroom book baskets, and read them to their families. They are surprised at how many of the words they can read. But the book has become so familiar to them, it doesn't surprise me at all! The Way To Start A Day flies off the school library shelves, and Byrd Baylor becomes a favorite author to my students. They innovate on the text, writing stories, poems, picture books, and more. Peter Parnall's illustrations are as captivating as Baylor's lyrical text, and as fascinating to children as "Where's Waldo?"!I love this book!

Peoples and their ways of greeting the new day.

This book for children shows how so many different peoples and cultures (from American Indians to African tribes to ancient Egyptians) have greeted the rising Sun with songs and praise. This book, illustrated by Peter Parnall, was a 1979 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children.