THE NIGHT IS LIKE AN ANIMAL

In a story poem by a first-time picture book creator, Night is a big shaggy bear, the bringer of darkness and the protector of sleeping children. Nibbling ``until the day is done,'' Night laps a drink from the Milky Way, then curls up beside the bed of three children, nearly filling their room. Before dawn, Night slips away ``past bedroom doors'' and is gone, leaving only its paw prints ``in shadows/upon the morning lawn.'' Whitman's dreamy torn paper pictures create a gentle mood and portray the bear as a soft, appealing creature; if the text is self-consciously poetic, it is also reassuring in its depiction of the night as benign. (Picture book. 2-5)