FIONA LOVES THE NIGHT

Slipping out in the wee hours, young Fiona finds the night a safe, welcoming place where she can run through cool, firefly-lit grass, touch a leaf of silvery lamb’s ear and see the dew-beaded web beneath, call to a mockingbird and meet the smiling Moon reflected in the pond. Shepherd uses fingerpaints to illustrate, but not in a childlike style; dots of soft blues and creams create subtly luminous highlights in the nightscape, and much of what Fiona sees is rendered with larger-than-page-sized closeness. Out trots Max the dog, to lead Fiona back to bed and smiling dreams. Young children, however they themselves regard the night, will feel enfolded by this nocturnal idyll, which is as tender and intimate as Kevin Henkes’ Caldecott Medal–winning Kitten’s First Full Moon (2004). (Picture book. 5-8)