The lyrics are better when sung—in either language—but their tone is properly echoed in these sweet, soft-focus...
Set to the tender night song’s standard English text, a suite of muted scenes features a drowsy, tousled child in bed beneath stars and angels.
Using long, visible strokes of brush and colored pencil, Alizadeh sets figures that look like small wooden dolls in misty scenes lit dimly by a candle, a moon with dots for eyes or informally drawn stars within pale nimbuses. Along with a parent at the beginning and near the end, doves, clouds and lambent-winged guardian angels hover as the young sleeper drifts off in gentle stages. This edition comes without a musical arrangement, and despite the titular refrain, the 19th-century translation from the Welsh doesn’t always read trippingly, for example, of angels: “They should of all fears disarm you, / No foreboding should alarm you. // They will let no peril harm you….” Still, the aforementioned refrain creates a soothing rhythm that anchors the song’s assurance of peaceful slumber.
The lyrics are better when sung—in either language—but their tone is properly echoed in these sweet, soft-focus illustrations. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: June 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-927018-09-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simply Read
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
Amiable if slight.
In a text that can be sung to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” a young dinosaur plays with other prehistoric friends and gets ready for bed.
In this companion piece to Twinkle, Twinkle Unicorn (2019), each double-page spread features a friendly, green theropod with rosy cheeks watching pink pterosaurs fly, using a sauropod’s tail as a sliding board, and watching volcanoes explode in the night sky. As the sun sets, the dinosaur yawns and heads back home to two larger dinosaurs, one pink with eyelashes and one blue without, who appear to be mama and papa dinosaur respectively (did color stereotyping based on gender exist 65 million years ago? And why isn’t the protagonist dinosaur mauve?). Waring has arguably created the most benign and affable dinosaurs possible, with their perpetual smiles, rounded horns and teeth, oversized eyes, and brightly colored hides. Weighing in at only a slight 16 pages, the book runs through two modified verses of the classic, and the first scans quite fluidly. The second stanza feels a little forced to make it fit into the bedtime theme: “Twinkle, twinkle dinosaur, / the day is done. / It’s time to snore.”
Amiable if slight. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: May 28, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3975-7
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A satisfying friendship story to share with very young children in the days leading up to Halloween.
This board book twists the traditional “Teeny Tiny” tale into a less-scary Halloween treat.
This version uses a singsong-y rhythm and cadence to tell the story. “In the teeny tiny barn / Of a teeny tiny house... / Lived a teeny tiny ghost / and a teeny tiny mouse.” Of course the ghost (being teeny tiny) is not very frightening. “But the determined little ghost / Let her mighty courage through / And with a teeny tiny breath / She said a teeny tiny: boo.” Spoiler alert: After just seven page turns the ghost and mouse become friends: “And now the teeny tinies play / In the teeny tiny house. / Just a teeny tiny ghost / And her best friend, mouse.” Pumpkins decorate the cover and final spread and illustrations throughout are in autumnal hues. The fairly high-for-the-format word count—19 to 21 words per page—may be more than toddlers will sit still for, but the “teeny tiny” repetition and rhymes will help. The size (just 6 inches square) makes using the book with a group a challenge, but with a lap-sitting child, it’ll be a pleasure.
A satisfying friendship story to share with very young children in the days leading up to Halloween. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-31848-7
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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