As babies dream

Newman and Morley present a warm, reassuring picture book that draws a connection between the natural world and family love. Newman's spare text, composed mainly of creatures' names or natural phenomena and well-paired descriptive verbs, provides scene-setting snippets: "As the turtles sun / and the snakes slide, / As the horses run / and the swans glide..." Each spread pairs creatures great and small, with caretaker grownups nurturing and protecting the littler ones. After zooming out to space ("As the moon glows / and the earth spins"), the tale returns to a city apartment building, home to several configurations of family, and delivers the concluding line: "...the babies dream /safe in our love." The gentle, lilting rhythm is easy to follow and recite, and the message is as comforting as could be. Morley's colorful, textured illustrations, too, exude adoration and warm-heartedness. As the day nears its end, and the sky slowly darkens, viewers also may experience the peace and calm elicited by this tranquil volume. Elissa Gershowitz January/February 2022 p.96(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A bedtime story bursting with strong, quiet love. Hinting at a stunning sunset, illustrations in deeply vibrant, softly dappled oranges, reds, and purples begin this gentle nighttime story of animal parents and offspring settling in for a night's rest. The text on each page follows a soothing pattern but also plays with both internal and end rhymes for an added treat. "As the crows fly / and the rivers flow, // As the eagles cry / and the winds blow," the book opens. Later: "As the rabbits hop / and the owls call, // As the leaves drop / and the rains fall," it continues pages later, still the same sentence. Young listeners are introduced to several birds, farm animals, and woodland mammals as well as frogs, turtles, and snakes. (There's also a lion family, quite out of place but useful for the rhyme.) By the end of the story, it is now a starry moonlit night illustrated in dark reds, purples, and blues, and readers have moved from wildlife to city life, with the sentence finally concluding: "As the stars gleam / high above, // the babies dream / safe in our love." The final image frames five different families in urban windows glowing with that love. The illustration suggests both family and racial diversity and includes what appear to be single-parent, two-parent, same-gender, and multigenerational families of White, Asian, and Black origin. In one family, the father wears a kippah. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Lush illustrations and lulling, playful verse create a warm and wonderful bedtime hug. (Picture book. 2-5) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.