It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Last updated
First edition (publ. Harper & Row) ItLookedLikeSpiltMilk.jpg
First edition (publ. Harper & Row)

It Looked Like Spilt Milk is an American children's picture book, written and illustrated by Charles Green Shaw. Originally published in 1947, the illustrations are a series of changing white shapes against a blue background. The reader is asked to guess what the shape is or whether it is just "spilt milk". (The first page has the narration read, "Sometimes it looked like spilt milk. But it wasn't spilt milk". Before the shape changes, what it really looked like was milk that had been spilled out of a glass and ended up all over the table.) First the shape looked like spilt milk, then a rabbit, a bluebird, a pig, a sheep, a birthday cake, a tree, an ice cream cone, a flower, an angel, a squirrel, a mitten, and finally a great horned owl. But it wasn't any of those 13 things. (That is, as the first 13 pages read, "Sometimes it looked like 'item name'. But it wasn't 'item name'".) The silhouette shape makes the reader know it is a secret item until the last page. At the end of the book, the last page repeats the phrase as the first page's line (as the narration reads, "Sometimes it looked like spilt milk. But it wasn't spilt milk".). It wasn't really spilt milk but only a cloud in the sky. (That is, as the phrase --on the last page-- reads, "It was just a cloud in the sky".) Then the silhouette shape becomes a real cloud in the daytime sky revealing that it was just a cloud. Then the changing white silhouette turns into a real cloud and the cloud goes up into the blue sky (which is what the white "item" really becomes). The last page becomes the blue sky and the white silhouette shape which turned into a cloud. On the last page, the silhouette shape is now a real item. That is, a cloud. Then the book ends.

A Scholastic Corporation edition was released in 1989. A board book version was published in 1993. An audio cassette and compact disc version by Live Oak Media was published in 1988 and has the narration of Peter Fernandez with the music heard at the beginning and end and read without music.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews wrote "Children love to play this game from earliest identification, and will like a book that plays it with them. Blue and white silhouettes make a cute idea book." [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Spilt Milk</i> (Jellyfish album) 1993 studio album by Jellyfish

Spilt Milk is the second and last studio album by American rock band Jellyfish, released on February 9, 1993, by Charisma Records. It features a harsher and more ornate sound than their previous, Bellybutton (1990). As with Bellybutton, Spilt Milk was written and co-produced by founding members Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning. Albhy Galuten and Jack Joseph Puig also returned as producers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick and Jane</span> Series of childrens early reading books

Dick and Jane are the two main characters created by Zerna Sharp for a series of basal readers written by William S. Gray to teach children to read. The characters first appeared in the Elson-Gray Readers in 1930 and continued in a subsequent series of books through the final version in 1965. These readers were used in classrooms in the United States and in other English-speaking countries for nearly four decades, reaching the height of their popularity in the 1950s, when 80 percent of first-grade students in the United States used them. Although the Dick and Jane series of primers continued to be sold until 1973 and remained in use in some classrooms throughout the 1970s, they were replaced with other reading texts by the 1980s and gradually disappeared from school curricula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speech balloon</span> Graphic convention in comics to show speech

Speech balloons are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words to be understood as representing a character's speech or thoughts. A formal distinction is often made between the balloon that indicates speech and the one that indicates thoughts; the balloon that conveys thoughts is often referred to as a thought bubble or conversation cloud.

<i>Black and White</i> (picture book) 1990 picture book by David Macaulay

Black and White is a 1990 postmodern children's picture book by David Macaulay. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, it received mixed reviews upon its release, but it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1991. The book tells four overlapping stories, each drawn with a distinct visual style. The four stories are "Seeing Things", about a boy on a train trip by himself, "Problem Parents", about siblings whose parents behave differently one night, "A Waiting Game", about people waiting for a train, and "Udder Chaos", about cows who escape and then return to their field.

<i>My Friend Rabbit</i> American TV series or program

My Friend Rabbit is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Eric Rohmann and first published in 2002. The illustrations in the book earned Rohmann the Caldecott Medal in 2003. My Friend Rabbit was adapted into an animated television series in 2007.

<i>Cloud Boy</i> Book by Rhode Montijo

Cloud Boy is a children's picture book written and illustrated by creator Rhode Montijo and published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Replay (Creech novel)</span> Childrens novel by Sharon Creech

Replay (2005) is a children's novel by American writer Sharon Creech.

The Rondo series is a children's fantasy novel trilogy written by Jennifer Rowe under the pen name Emily Rodda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brother of Mine</span> Book by Chris Westwood

Brother of Mine is the fourth young adult novel by English writer Chris Westwood. It was first published in the UK by Viking Kestrel (part of the Penguin Group and in the US by Clarion Books in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmospheric optics</span> Study of the optical characteristics of the atmosphere or products of atmospheric processes

Atmospheric optics is "the study of the optical characteristics of the atmosphere or products of atmospheric processes .... [including] temporal and spatial resolutions beyond those discernible with the naked eye". Meteorological optics is "that part of atmospheric optics concerned with the study of patterns observable with the naked eye". Nevertheless, the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably.

"Spilt Milk" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the FX anthology television series American Horror Story. The episode, written by series co-creator Brad Falchuk and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, aired on January 9, 2013. This episode is rated TV-MA (LSV).

<i>Dear Blue Sky</i>

Dear Blue Sky is a 2012 American novel written by Mary Sullivan, the receiver of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and a St. Botolph Club Foundation Award. The story is split into short chapters, and told in the perspective of Cassie, an American girl whose brother volunteered to fight in the Iraq War. This book is recommended for ages 10 and up.

<i>Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll</i> Manga series for children

Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll is a full-color manga series written and illustrated by Yumi Tsukirino and based on an original story by Chisato Seki. Aimed at elementary school girls, it stars the Sanrio character Cinnamoroll and was released in North America by the Vizkids line of Viz Media. It was originally serialized in Japan from 2005 through 2008 in Pucchigumi.

<i>Sam and Dave Dig a Hole</i> 2014 childrens book by Mac Barnett

Sam and Dave Dig a Hole is a children’s book by author Mac Barnett and illustrator Jon Klassen. It was published by Candlewick in 2014 and was selected as a Caldecott Honor Book in 2015.

<i>Best Shot in the West</i>

Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love is a 2012 graphic novel written by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack and illustrated by Randy DuBurke. It is about the life of African-American cowboy Nat Love.

<i>Five Kingdoms: Sky Raiders</i>

Five Kingdoms: Sky Raiders is a 2014 fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Mull. It is the first novel in the Five Kingdoms series.

Gay Hay is a New Zealand children's book author, based in Pukerua Bay, best known for her books Fantail's Quilt (2011) and Watch Out, Snail! (2013), both illustrated by Margaret Tolland.

<i>Back to Front and Upside Down!</i> 2012 picture book by Claire Alexander

Back to Front and Upside Down! is a picture book for children by British novelist Claire Alexander. The book deals with the difficulty some children might face when learning how to write. Alexander was awarded the Young Readers' Schneider Family Book Award in 2013 for her work.

<i>How to Be a Cat</i> Childrens picture book by Nikki McClure

How to Be a Cat is a 2013 children's picture book by Nikki McClure. It is about a kitten learning kitty skills from a cat.

<i>Every Body Looking</i> 2020 young adult novel by Candice Iloh

Every Body Looking is a young adult novel in verse by Candice Iloh, published September 22, 2020 by Dutton Books for Young Readers.

References

  1. "It Looked Like Spilt Milk". www.kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Media LLC. Retrieved 17 July 2015.