CRICKET SONG

Sleeping children on different sides of the ocean are linked by nature’s sounds.

The sun moves west, and an evening breeze “carries the song of crickets” to a sleeping child. Outside, cricket song merges with the “kreck” of frogs and the “poorwill!” of a bird listening for a fox’s woodland footsteps. While the fox sniffs rabbit’s field burrow, she listens to owl’s “hoo” over the ocean, where “sea otters doze” in the bay and whales sing “deep in the sea.” The same breeze draws fishermen to another shore. Here, parakeets “scrawk” in a palm tree growing in the yard of a girl sleeping while crickets sing outside the window. The sonorous text, laced with soothing onomatopoeic animal sounds, transports wee listeners from the bedroom of one sleeping child to that of another. Soporific illustrations in pen, ink, and watercolor realistically capture nature’s creatures in the muted hues of dusk, while deft use of crosshatching suggests nightfall’s atmospheric shadows. The double-page spreads progress from bedroom to yard to woods to fields to shore to ocean and finally to another shore and a different bedroom. A panoramic border at the foot of each spread holistically spans both coasts, transitioning from temperate to tropical worlds as each new page turn reveals minute visual changes reflecting the text.

Sensitive bedtime winner guaranteed to enchant drowsy kids