FLY BY NIGHT
by June Crebbin & illustrated by Stephen Lambert
Little Blink sleeps by day, then waits at night for Mother Owl to come home. But on this day, at dawn, he begins asking her, ``Now? Is it time?'' The quiet, cadenced text describes what goes on nearby—beetles scuttling, a squirrel jumping past—as Blink impatiently waits and his mother repeats, ``Soon. Go back to sleep.'' At last, dusk deepens, the night breeze stirs with ``puff and nonsense,'' and it's time for his first flight. Young children will enjoy the reversal of night and day for a creature whose eagerness to wake and rise so resembles theirs; Lambert's gentle, soft-edged forms, restful designs, and appealing little owl are just the right complement for a book whose peaceful tone makes it, ironically, a perfect bedtime story. (Picture book. 3- 6)