FAIRY GOODNIGHT KISSES

“The fairy family is getting ready for bed. Shh! Come and see…. / 1 one glowing moon ….” Readers are prompted to count familiar bedtime objects from one to ten, all rendered in Watanabe’s pastel hues on (mostly) softly contrasting backgrounds. While toddlers with rudimentary number sense may have difficulty with “four pairs of fuzzy slippers”—which will be more easily understood as “eight slippers”—the progression is more or less straightforward until the final spread of “ten goodnight kisses” bestowed by one fairy mother to her ten tucked-in children, presumably in turn although only kiss number one is shown. More for adult readers than for babies. Fairy Tea Party (ISBN: 978-1-58925-840-1) introduces colors with equally dubious success, given the overall busy-ness of the colors. (2-3)