HOW TO MAKE A BEDTIME

A tot prepares for bed with a little help from a loving bear.

“When the sun’s light is fading / and night’s on the rise, / it’s time to start yawning / your sleepy goodbyes.” The narrator of this gentle rhyming tale appears to be the anthropomorphic bear who helps a young child settle into bed. The little one is light-skinned and has short, straight, strawberry-blond hair, while the brown, pajama-clad animal would be right at home in one of Virginia Miller’s bear books. There’s nothing threatening about the large creature, who looks on as the child bathes and dons pajamas, helps the youngster find a lost teddy, reads a story, and finally tucks the child in for the night with “a huggily hug, and a smoochily kiss.” Readers may wonder at the omission of toothbrushing, but there’s certainly no missing the affection between the child and the bear, and the warm palette and soft lines and forms that make up the illustrations only enhance the text’s soothing tone. At book’s end, the sleepy bear, duty done, retreats to the blanket fort where it first appeared with the child on the opening endpapers for some shut-eye as well, taking the narrative full circle.

An artfully constructed bedtime book.