STAR BLANKET

A family tale that doesn’t quite make the leap from personal memoir to universal bedtime story. Laura has a beloved blanket—deep blue with 41 white stars—and her favorite bedtime story is the one about the star blanket. Her dad tells her that he got the blanket as a gift when his little sister—Laura’s Aunt Patty—was baptized. He was grumpy because she got all the presents, until his grandma gave him the star blanket. Each star is named for one of the aunts, uncles, or cousins; his grandma told him if he said goodnight to all of them, he would never have trouble falling asleep. Warm, cozy interiors and styles from the ’50s fill the soft, rosy watercolors as dad recounts memories of his childhood for his girl, and she falls asleep under the same family covering. Sweet, but perhaps more for the parents and grandparents than the kids. (Picture book. 4-7)