Review_CHILDREN’S
52 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 8, 2021
Review_CHILDREN’S
★ The Night Is Deep and Wide
Gillian Sze, illus. by Sue Todd. Orca, $10.95 (20p) ISBN 978-1-4598-
2481-2
It’s time to sleep, and all of life knows it in this spare,
sleepy-making board book written in villanelle form. As
“shadows grow” at dusk, a dark-haired child picking blooms
witnesses tulips closing as fireflies “flit and glow,” young
songbirds cuddle “against their mothers’ sides,” and “even
the home slumps and sighs low.” Visually recalling Nikki
McClure’s use of negative space, b&w linocut art by Todd,
featuring minimal splashes of color, complements Sze’s
gentle words, which confidently engage the verse form’s
rhyme and repetition: “Tulips close, row by row.// Moonlight
falls/ on eyes that close.” As tulips shut and animals slumber,
the protagonist arrives home to curl up, too, settling in for
the night with a vase of the tulips on the bedside table. A
lovely visual lullaby to soothe youngest readers to sleep.
Ages up to 2. (Mar.)★ It’s So Quiet: A Not-Quite-Going-to-Bed Book
Sherri Duskey Rinker, illus. by Tony Fucile. Chronicle, $17.99 (56p)
ISBN 978-1-4521-4544-0
This bedtime book by Rinker opens at the close of a day,
with creatures settling down in a country setting. An anthro-
pomorphic mother mouse is kept up by her exasperated child,
who exclaims, “It’s TOO QUIET!” But Mama explains that
“the small sweet sounds of nighttime/ will whisper you to
sleep.” And one by one, they begin to
resound: a bullfrog’s deep “CRRR-OAK,”
the soft “WHOOSH” of the breeze
through the trees. As the barrage of
nighttime noises reaches a crescendo,
little Mouse again feels irked, but for a
new reason that draws laughs. Onoma-
topoetic words add fun to Rinker’s
rhyming readaloud, while digital illustrations by Fucile offer
accurate representations of each sound, as well as of a sweetly
irritable child who is eager to get some shut-eye. Younger
readers will enjoy the easy repetition, and may even begin to
find comfort in real-life quiet. Ages 3–5. (Feb.)Good Night, Earth
Linda Bondestam, trans. from the Swedish by Galit Hasan-Rokem.
Yonder, $20 (46p) ISBN 978-1-63206-286-4
Told from the perspective of a green alien family on a far-
away planet, Bondestam’s endearing solo debut offers a peek
into the fictional bedtime routines of animals from around the
world. Young readers will learn the habits of familiar animals
(Little Chimp needs his mother to play at least 73 songs on
the ukulele) as well as less well-known creatures (the axolotl“reads his favorite book,” the cover of which matches this
one). Offbeat humor permeates the text (“ ‘Jump into your
beds,’/ Papa Kiwi hollers./ But no! He has to play flying
raisins for hours”) and accompanies Bondestam’s quirky,
multipatterned collage-style illustrations. The penultimate
bedtime routine will resonate with parental readers, while
the final spreads offer a last laugh for young ones. Ages 3–6.
(Apr.)★ I’ll Meet You in Your Dreams
Jessica Young, illus. by Rafael López. Little, Brown, $17.99 (40p)
ISBN 978-0-316-45328-8
In fanciful verse by Young, a parent promises to be present
for every moment of a child’s life. López shifts back and forth
between two brown-skinned parent-child pairs. “You’ll be an
eagle and I’ll be a hawk,” begins a vertical spread depicting a
striped-shirt-wearing brunette child and their red-dress-
wearing guardian, both now sprouting wings. “We’ll be two
stars twinkling bright,” starts another, showing a child with
textured hair floating alongside their hat-wearing adult. As
each child matures, cozy images give way to adventure; befit-
ting the world of dreams, the humans shrink, expand, and fly,
their ascents given space by vertical spreads. Fresh, bright
spreads by López incorporate folk elements such as stylized
leaves and flowers. As the children strike out on their own,
the text nods to differing life paths, portraying one new adult
pursuing their passion in music and one starting a family of
their own, in a bedtime fantasy of love, possibility, and accep-
tance. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)The Nice Dream Truck
Beth Ferry, illus. by Brigette Barrager. HarperCollins, $17.99 (32p)
ISBN 978-0-06-290783-7
Three round-faced children of varying ethnicities are
tucked into a large bed, each with shut eyes and wide smiles,
as this picture book opens. A page later, a brown-skinned,
purple-haired girl with “stars in her eyes” makes her
entrance in the fantastical Nice Dream Truck—a floating
aquamarine affair sporting an enormous ice cream topper
and rearview mirror dice—which serves up sweet dreams in
the form of elaborate ice cream treats, pictured in myriad
colors and topped with syrups and stars. From “dreams
about summer/ and dreams about snow. Dreams about
puppies/ wherever you go” to fantasies of flight, whales,
and jelly bean scales, Barrager employs flurries of pinks,
purples, and blues in digital illustrations that bring Ferry’s
creative rhymes to life. The children at last “snuggle down
deep” atop a fluffy white cloud, ending their dream with a
satisfied smile. A sweet bedtime romp with commercial
appeal. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)Good Night, Sleep Tight
Five picture books help readers catch z’s.