This book is the winner of numerous awards. It was recognised by the Red Clover Award. It was recognised in the Picture Book category by the Americas Award. It also was recognised by the Caldecott Award. The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

There are 40 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 1995 by Prentice Hall (a Pearson Education company) .

Andrea Davis Pinkney is the author of many acclaimed picture books and young adult novels and works for Scholastic Publishing. Brian Pinkney has illustrated numerous books for children and he has written and illustrated several of his own books.