NIGHTY NIGHT!

Wild (The Pocket Dogs, p. 423, etc.) scores again with a barnyard of animal babies who won’t go to bed. It is time to be tucked in and the parent animals—Mother Sheep, Father Duck, Mother Hen, and Father Pig—send their children to bed. Mother Sheep arrives at her pen but when she calls, “Nighty night, my lovely lambs” her little lambs have been replaced by little chicks who say, “Cheep! Cheep! Tricked you!” And so it goes throughout the barnyard as one parent after another stands in open-mouthed surprise at finding substitute children. Father Duck discovers piglets in the pond, “You sassy scalawags!” Mother Hen is shocked that the lambs are tucked into the nest in her hen house and ducklings surprise Father Pig. They are all sorted out in the end with a chorus of “Nighty nights.” There is one last delaying tactic from each and the piglets claim they have to “wee, wee, wee.” The repeated phrases will be sure to have sleepy children chiming in and Argent’s (Sleepy Bears, 1999, etc.) strong, rich watercolors offer beguiling parents and offspring. A delightful bedtime treat that could stir up “little rascals.” (Picture book. 3-5)