IT’S TIME TO SLEEP, IT’S TIME TO DREAM

If the title recalls “Turn! Turn! Turn!” it should. Adler offers a spare, comforting bedtime book that incorporates the changing seasons into a child’s nighttime dreams. There is little text on each page, just a few carefully chosen words evoking each season of the year in turn: “It’s time to sleep. It’s time to dream, so close your eyes and dream of resting beneath the budding maple tree.” As a mother and father put their son to sleep, they say these quietly descriptive words to soothe him. Chorao makes an effective choice in illustrating the majority of the bedtime activities in silhouette form, while the boy’s exuberant imaginings are rendered in vibrant color paintings. Throughout, small blue-and-white stars lend visual continuity to the whole, recontextualizing the boy’s dreams—of spring flowers, summer sand and sea, autumn leaves and a snowman—within the bedtime framework. The simplicity of the text and the sensible selection of soothing colors will lull any child to sleep. (Picture book. 2-5)