bedtime

When the World Is Ready for Bed

| Tasha

When the World Is Ready for Bed by Gillian Shields, illustrated by Anna Currey

It’s bedtime and the entire world starts to get ready.  The little rabbits are called back to their cozy cottage.  The flowers close, night birds sing.  The evening routine starts.  There is warm soup for supper.  Toys have to be tidied up.  Time for talking about the day.  Then baths, teeth, and faces.  Stories, prayers, and hugs.  And one final glimpse of a bright star in the sky. 

This quiet bedtime story has the warmth and feel of a very traditional English tale like Peter Rabbit.  The story is told in short rhyming verses that add to the feeling of tradition and also to the feeling of a gentle nighttime routine.  Currey’s art reflects that same sense of timelessness and coziness.  From the soft cozy furniture to the toys strewn across the floor even after tidying up. 

This is a book to sink into, read again and again, and make part of your regular bedtime routine.  Appropriate for ages 1-4.

Reviewed from library copy.

Oh Crumps!

| Tasha

Oh, Crumps! by Lee Bock, illustrated by Morgan Midgett

Farmer Felandro is so very tired.  He has a lot to do tomorrow: milk the cows, fix the fence, mow the hay and climb the silo.  And morning comes so early.  As he is falling asleep, he hears the goats Maahing outside.  Oh crumps!  So he puts on his boots and heads out to put them in their pen.  Back in bed, he goes through his list of chores for tomorrow mixing his words up, and then hears the dogs barking.  On go the boots, out to the barn, gets the dogs settled, back in bed, list of chores, and another animals makes noise outside.  This happens again and again, until finally it is dawn and the day has begun.

This book has a very nice mix of humor and traditional feel.  Bock has created a story with a natural rhythm that will have young listeners feeling immediately at home.  Yet he also has created a very nice running gag as the farmer mixes up the words on his list of chores, leading to him thinking about fixing the cow and milking the fence!  Midgett’s illustrations merrily follow these words, so that we can see the farmer sitting with a bucket milking the spotted fence.  Her art will project well to a group of students with its thick lines and deep colors.

Highly recommended as an addition to farming story times or as a great bedtime choice, this book comes in both English and bilingual (English/Spanish) version.  Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Reviewed from ARC received from publisher.

Night Lights

| Tasha

Night Lights by Susan Gal

Follow a girl through her evening in this quiet picture book.  The book begins with her biking home with her mother, roasting hotdogs with her dog looking eagerly on, celebrating the dog’s birthday with a huge dog-bone cake, and then her bedtime routine.  Each page has only a few words and those explain the various lights that illuminate the evening.  The story itself is told entirely in the illustrations.

It is those illustrations that make this such a marvelous picture book.  Each page has a glow about it without using any glitter or extra glued on sparkles.  The light comes from inside the illustrations, done in charcoal on paper and digital collage.  The collage effect is subtle here, captured mostly in the fabrics in the pictures.  The illustrations are warm, friendly and cozy, perfect for bedtime.

With its small word count and inviting illustrations, this debut picture book makes a perfect bedtime book for a toddler.  Appropriate for ages 1-4.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

The Secret Plan

| Tasha

The Secret Plan by Julia Sarcone-Roach

Four friends, Milo, Hildy, Henry and Harriet are always being interrupted by bedtime!  So they hatch a cunning plan to get to stay up later.  Of course, their first few plans don’t work as well as they had hoped as their parents discover them hiding around the house, see through their disguises, and not even sneaking out works.  In their final plan, they pretend to be getting ready for bed as usual, then Milo the elephant dons his big furry monster slippers to sneak up the stairs.  They head to the attic where they find costumes, books, and snacks.  Eventually they start to get sleepy and head back down to bed.

This is such a winning book.  The four main characters are real scamps and their plans and the outcomes are deliciously naughty and very funny.  I especially appreciated Milo blending in with the wallpaper by painting stripes on himself.  Their disguise is equally funny with all of them working together.  But it is the ending of the book that really makes it work.  Instead of getting into any trouble in their late night escapade, they have a quiet time with books and a tea party in the attic.  There is no parental outrage, no repercussions, just the immense pleasure of a late night with friends.

Sarcone-Roach’s art works very well here.  Done in acrylic paint, the illustrations are rich, vivid and engaging.  A lot of the humor here is visual, though the wry tone of voice of the text offers some of the laughs.  The house that the animals share is wonderfully tippy and upright, filled with stairs. 

A great book to share for a bedtime story or a special late night read.  Appropriate for ages 3-6.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

A Book of Sleep

| Tasha

A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na

The simple prose of this night-time picture book is made magnificent by its illustrations.  Owl is awake alone all night and watches all sorts of beasts sleep through the darkness.  Every creature sleeps differently even though they are all asleep at night.  Then when dawn comes, everyone else wakes up while owl falls asleep. 

According to the blurb in the book, the illustrations are a combination of handmade painterly textures with digitally generated layers compiled in Adobe Photoshop.  The result is complex and lovely.  The illustrations are filled with repeating motifs, patterns used as shadows, grass and skies.  They are large and while not bright-colored, they will project well for use with a group of children. 

Inspiring art in a simple picture book, this book is perfect bedtime reading for toddlers where the adults will enjoy lingering on each page just as much as the child.  Appropriate for ages 2-5.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Hush, Baby Ghostling

| Tasha

Hush, Baby Ghostling by Andrea Beatty, illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre.

It’s morning, so it’s time for Baby Ghostling to head to bed in their castle tower.  Mother ghost tucks him in and urges him to think about monsters, owls, bats, and more.  She leaves the darkness on in the hall, because he is scared of the light.  And finally, she reassures him that the blonde boy he sees in his dreams is not there because “childlings” are make-believe. 

This is a clever twist on the bedtime story.  I especially like the part about leaving the darkness on in the hall.  Beatty’s text is rhyming and has a nice lilting rhythm.  It is a lullaby of a book where the rhymes work well.  Lemaitre’s illustrations nicely combine a softness of background and light with characters drawn in thick lines.  The parts about the different monsters, bats and owls are illustrated with a variety of beasts, but they appear playing in playgrounds, blowing bubbles, and doing other silly, everyday things.

This is perfect for a Halloween story time with smaller children because it isn’t scary at all.  In fact, children will enjoy being seen as the frightening ones.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from publisher.

Also reviewed by Anastasia Suen.

It’s Time to Sleep, It’s Time to Dream

| Tasha

It’s Time to Sleep, It’s Time to Dream by David A. Adler, illustrated by Kay Chorao

This gentle picture book has two parallel stories. One follows the words of the book and gently rocks and sways its way to slumber.  It moves season by season until winter comes and it is truly time to sleep.  Done in beautiful paintings by Chorao, there is sweetness and happiness and bliss throughout.  A different story, more familiar to parents of tiny ones, is told in silhouette one each page.  A toddler doesn’t want to sleep as his parents rock him, trade back and forth, put him to bed, sneak out, and then have to return to get him to sleep.  These small black images keep the book from being too sweet and offer an alternative view of what it’s really like to get a child to sleep.

The text here by Adler is wonderful.  His use of repetition, rhythm and phrasing is masterful, ideal for toddlers.  It creates its own lullaby, a rocking sensation, a sway which is hard to find in bedtime books.  Chorao’s illustrations are equally successful, showing the passing seasons, each captured in loving paintings, but also taking joy in the more lifelike silhouetted story going on at the bottom of the page.  

A great gift for new babies, this book will be treasured by any family lucky enough to read it at bedtime.  It is a quiet, sweet book not intended for the romp of a story time.  Appropriate for babies to 2 year olds. 

I Need My Monster

| Tasha

I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll, illustrated by Howard McWilliam

When Ethan checks under his bed, he finds a note from his monster:

Gone Fishing.  Back in a week. –Gabe

Ethan needed a monster under his bed to sleep.  He missed the ragged breathing, the sound of claws on the floor, and the green ooze.  So Ethan taps on the floor and waits.  A series of monsters appears, each one missing one of the important qualities Ethan needs.  Finally, after rejecting his fourth monster, Gabe returns to fill Ethan’s sleep with his own special scariness.

This clever book could have been trite and contrived, but instead is filled with good humor and vivid monster characters.  As one monster after another appears, they stay distinct and unique from one another.  Each is visually different, but they also have different speech patterns, making them a treat to read aloud.

McWilliam’s illustrations done in pencil with digital acrylic paint are vivid and will appeal to fans of Pixar films since they have a similar quality.  McWilliam uses interesting perspectives and demonstrates a lot of humor in his work.  A perfect pairing with the text.

This book is ideal for pajama story times because the monsters are frightening but great fun.  It reads aloud well and offers readers a great range of voices and sound effects.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.