Song Of Night: It's Time To Go To Bed - Hardcover

Nakamura, Katie Riley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0439266785 ISBN 13: 9780439266789

Publisher: Blue Sky Press, 2002

Synopsis

A soothing good-night picture book in the spirit of Time for Bed (Mem Fox/Jane Dyer) where cuddly baby animals and their loving parents prepare for bed. Stunning illustrations.

As night falls, all the little animals are in their homes getting ready for bedtime. A young duckling splashes in the bathtub as his mother looks on. Two kittens snuggle up to their papa cat as he reads a bedtime story. A bear cub gets a nice back-rub before she climbs into bed. A daddy bear sings quietly as his baby drifts off to sleep. Every spread is filed with Riley's gentle, humorous details--the baby bunny has bunny slippers, a busy ladybug cavorts across the pages--and children will find dozens of small images to amuse them and hold their attention while their parents are reading. All over, little animals and their parents prepare for sleep, just like little children and their parents do.

About this title

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Ages 1-3. This affectionate bedtime book will send little ones off to sweet, sweet dreamland. When a carrot constellation takes shape in the starry sky, Bunny and all the other animal children get ready for bed. Richly textured, impishly detailed, pastel illustrations tuck the humor of true-to-life human bedtime preparations into the animals' nightly rituals. Mice string the bathroom in a web of "Rodental Floss" as they brush their teeth. An evergreen air freshener dangles over the couch where a baby skunk receives a soothing, pre-bed back rub, and an infant squirrel is rocked in an ingeniously engineered walnut-shell cradle. Other touches include a trio of serenading crickets, a carrot pull-toy, and bunny slippers with eyes that close as their wearer becomes drowsy. Like Papa Bear singing a lullaby to his wide-eyed cub, other animal dads and moms are pictured doing their part to calm active youngsters at day's end. The page-filling pictures provide warm embellishment for the rhyming text, which will make an irresistible read-aloud. Parents and children will snuggle warmly as the soothing rhyme flows gently to the last endearing sentiment: "Close your eyes. To sleep you go. Here's one more kiss . . . I love you so." Ellen Mandel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Publishers Weekly:

Riley and her daughter, newcomer Nakamura, team up for a look at the bedtime rituals of eight parent-and-child animal pairs. "Mice brush their teeth/ without a care./ They make a mess/ most everywhere," accompanies a scene of mild bathroom chaos that may well remind fans of Riley's Mouse Mess (the book itself makes a cameo appearance in a scene of a feline family's bedtime reading). The rhymes are workmanlike ("Baby Bear will softly sigh/ as Daddy sings a lullaby"), but the humorous details of the vignettes (as Little Skunk prepares for bed, a ladybug sprays perfume in the air) and Riley's signature velour-like textures exude the warmth of familial connections. One especially congenial full-bleed spread toward the end gathers all eight families together as they gaze up at a full moon. Ages 3-up.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blue Sky Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0439266785
• ISBN 13: 9780439266789
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Riley Linnea