Review by New York Times Review
I know A family who regularly skinny-dip in the Atlantic after the sun has set. I also know a family who live in a gated community, in a house stocked with more guns than they have hands to fire their guns. I feel lucky to have been born to a mother who runs outside at the first sound of thunder, greeting each storm. From her, I learned to love the night, the ocean, the storm, but even so, at times an uneasiness creeps in with the dark. Fear rears its head and I wonder, who taught us to be scared? Who told us night is a fearful realm? "MONSTER is my friend." Emily Tetri's heroine, Tiger, makes this bold statement to her family in the graphic-novel-style tiger VS. NIGHTMARE (Macmillan, 64 pp., $17.99; ages 6 to io). Monster, in nightly bedtime battles, goes head-to-head with nightmares that come for Tiger. When Monster's powers begin to fail, Tiger steps up, taking on a nightmare by denouncing its reality. But real or not, nightmares affect us, and so the true victory in Tetri's book comes in unlikely collaborations and creativity in the face of terror. It comes from befriending a "monster." WHICH MAKES me wonder, how can we stop fear before it ever blooms? An answer exists in three gorgeous picture books that celebrate the chaos, calm and color of night. Kitty Crowther's stories of the NIGHT (Gecko, 64 pp., $17.99; ages 4 and up) IS a blissful release into the world of wonder. I would like to give this book as a gift to every child, every person in my life. Its magic is first evident in its revealing dedication: "For Sara Donati, who slept one night at my house, and dreamed that I made a book called 'Short Stories of the Night' with a pink cover and a handwritten title." Crowther has made Donati's dream come true. This magical totem of a book bursts with beauty, absurdity, generosity and the surprise of the natural world. Crowther makes new myths as she presents a mama bear who tells her child three bedtime stories. In one story, the Night Guardian, with her small gong and illuminated hair, tells Earth's creatures (fish, ants, mushrooms, ermines and humans) when it is time for bed, uniting all life in the magical, unconscious hours of dream and possibility. In another, Zhora, a brave girl who hopes to find the darkest blackberry, is rewarded for her courage: a berry as large as her tiny body and a new friend in Jacko Molio the bat. The third story introduces bearded old Bo, who lives in an abandoned owl nest, where perhaps the owls' nocturnal tendencies have rubbed off on him. Bo is restless. He heads "out into the woods to look for some sleep." Bo's friend Otto, the poet and otter, suggests Bo might enjoy a swim. "It's far too chilly." So Otto advises, "Go in with your coat on then." I hail this triumphant moment where joyful silliness trumps the chokehold of "safety" that flattens some children's literature. Bo has a lovely swim and even finds one of Otto's stone poems under the water. Satisfied and delighted, blessings now counted - swimming, night, bed, poetry, good friends - sleep comes easily to Bo. Crowther's book has all the delightful strangeness of Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams's classic "Little Fur Family," but "Stories of the Night" takes place in a hand-wrought, colored-pencil forest made resplendent with rich tones, particularly a shocking pink, so warm and cheerful it fills the woods with joy. An opening illustration shows a bear mother and child returning from a sunset stroll. The darkness is visible on them, graphite fingerprints that feel human, considered and kind. In the distance, their cabin glows with the warmth of the living, while all around them we find this pink - not the Pepto of a blinged-out princess, but rather a regal pink of sunsets, cozy fires, pinebranch tents and a sleeping mushroom family; the pink of wonder, of forests and grateful nights without fear. IN A BIG MOONCAKE FOR LITTLE STAR (Little, Brown, 40 pp., $17.99; ages 3 to 7), Grace Lin brings us her first picture book in eight years, after middle-grade books including the Newbury Honor-winning "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon." Little Star's mother sets a freshly baked mooncake out to cool on the night sky. The rich darkness of the book's pages is cut by the glorious gold of the stars and the child's bright smile as she munches down a full mooncake every month. Her crumbs become astral bodies. The new moon arrives when her nighttime snack is finally consumed. Time to bake another cake! Lin takes what's large and perhaps overwhelming - planetary motions - and translates the scientific into story. Our child protagonist has a hand in the mechanism of the universe. If that's not empowering, if that's not fear-busting, I don't know what is. ROXANE MARIE GALLIEZ and Seng Soun Ratanavanh's gentle, gloriously colorful and imaginative time for bed, miyuki (Princeton Architectural Press, 32 pp., $17.95; ages 4 to 8) also deals with cycles - the cycles a child might pass through on her way to sleep. While this is a bedtime book, it also honors the schedules children set for themselves before bed. Miyuki's grandfather, wise and patient, allows Miyuki time for her own rituals of readying body and mind. He confirms his granddaughter's agenda, rather than supplanting it with his own. Together they gather the snails, prepare for the Dragonfly Queen's arrival with water carrots, turnips and radishes, cover the cats in a cozy blanket, dance, bathe and of course, most important, enjoy a bedtime story. Thus, we grow compassion. We steer clear of hurry, stress, fear and all its attendant reactions: cruelty, isolation and control. Trusting in the cycles of nature, the wisdom of children and the world of wonder is central to all three of these beautiful books. They are lap-size portals to worlds where there is no fear, even in the face of night, mystery and the glorious unknown. Samantha hunt is the author of novels including "Mr. Splitfoot" and "The Seas," which was recently republished with an introduction by Maggie Nelson.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 11, 2019]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this collection of original tales by Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award-winner Crowther, Little Bear asks for three bedtime stories, and Mother Bear obliges. In the first, an old woman with long hair, the Night Guardian, puts all the young forest animals, and then herself, to bed ("Go to bed, and then your sleep will catch you," she tells a reluctant ermine). In the second, child Zhora, lost in the woods, is given shelter by her friend, the bat Jacko Mollo, in his treetop pine nest. In the last, Bo, a little man in a huge overcoat, takes a swim in the ocean, fully clothed, before he can go to sleep. Each story fuses an uncanny wildness with images of coziness and safety. Using a mixture of fine, bright lines and a startling shade of saturated pink that echoes the words' sense of light, love, and warmth, Crowther abstracts textures and patterns found in the natural world. Together with the appealing illustrated animal nests, these distinctive bedtime litanies might become some families' favorite nighttime read: "The sky is all black now. But we can count on the stars to lead us into tomorrow." Ages 3-7. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Three gentle fairy-tale bedtime stories that children will find endearing. Little Bear does her best to persuade her mother to tell three stories before bedtime. Mother Bear obliges and begins with the story of the Night Guardian who makes sure all of the forest creatures go to sleep. She bangs her gong when the moon rises and quietly convinces the animals that it's time for them to go to bed. When all are tucked in, who will tell the Night Guardian that it's time to go to sleep? Next, Little Bear requests a tale about a little girl with the sword who gets lost in the woods. Zhora's mother has sent her children into the forest to find delicious blackberries. When she is unable to find any, Zhora decides to go deeper into the woods to search. She strays too far and can't find her way out. Who will help her and where will she rest for the night? For the third and final story, Little Bear chooses the tale about a man in the big coat who has trouble sleeping. While walking out in the woods looking for sleep, Bo meets up with his friend Otter, who writes poetry on rocks. Maybe Otter can help his friend get some rest. Originally written in German, the stories will not be familiar to many young listeners and readers. However, they're full of kind characters who are willing to help others. The colored pencil illustrations are almost childlike, with simply drawn characters and exaggerated features. VERDICT A sweet way to transition from easy readers to beginning chapter books. Children will ask for these stories again and again.-Barbara Spiri, Southborough Library, MA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In this volume (translated from the Swedish), Little Bear asks his mother for three bedtime stories and she lovingly complies, reciting tales of a Night Guardian, a little girl, and a man--each traversing a dreamy, neon-pink-hued forest before sleep. The textured colored-pencil scenes and Scandinavian atmosphere evoke a timeless nighttime world, appealing in its strangeness. The small, square trim size is perfect for cozy one-on-one sharing. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A quirky charmer of a bedtime book. The eponymous stories are not books read to a childrather, Crowther's Mother Bear tells Little Bear three stories orally. It's clear this is a familiar routine in their cozy home in the woods, since Little Bear asks for each story with descriptions that indicate familiarity: "The one that says it's time to go to sleep," and "The little girl with a sword who gets lost," and "The one with the man in a big coat who never sleeps!" Mother Bear indulges each request, and the accompanying illustrations shift from depictions of the two of them in Little Bear's room to ones that present each story's world. While the palette is remarkably distinct, with a bright pink dominating the cover and highlighting interior spreads, the art style has a subtle, fantastic feel to it, as if it stepped out of Tove Jansson's workor as if a Moomin could easily step into them. At the book's end, Little Bear imagines all the story characters coming to cuddle up in bed, and then Mother Bear goes to sit by the fire. In this closing spread she holds a book, its cover illustrated with those same characters, offering the reader a cozy metafictive conclusion. A visually distinct, original, pleasing bedtime book that has the feel of a classic. (Picture book. 3-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
