Customer Reviews

Good Night Arizona (Good Night Our World series)

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We own a number of books in the "Goodnight World" series. My kids love them and so do I. They aren't stories as much as they are simple sentences saying "good morning" to different things at the beginning and "good night" or "good evening" at the end. What makes the books really special are the illustrations because they are full of things to talk about with kids. And, when kids get to the age that they want to tell stories, they can talk about all of the things they see even if they can't read. The books usually highlight famous areas or attractions, animals and activities in each geographical location.

I was so excited when I got this book because I was expecting to see things my sons could relate to in our new state. Unfortunately, this book is huge disappointment. First of all, the illustrations are very basic, almost amateur. Instead of being full of things to talk about, the illustrations are about just what is written. Instead of having lots of interesting things to see, the book is full of "lists"; the names of professional sports teams in Arizona, types of cacti and plants and animals. And the pictures of the athletes have absolutely nothing to do with Arizona, they aren't wearing the team colors, they don't show the mascots, they could be athletes from any state. There isn't anything to talk about or to expand on the simple sentences. Not only that, but one of the things mentioned in the book is the "golden aspens beautiful in autumn." Yes, they have aspen here but is Arizona really known for this? No. There are many cultural references and attractions that Arizona is known for that could have been mentioned instead, the London Bridge, San Xavier del Bac, the rocks of Oak Creek Canyon and slick rock, Sedona, the sculpture of the girl in a flatbed Ford in Winslow, etc.

The books in the "Goodnight World" series are usually loving tributes to whatever the book is about. This book is so bland and generic in story and illustrations that I'm not even sure the author and illustrator have actually ever been to Arizona.

While I routinely buy the other "Goodnight World" series books as gifts, I won't be buying this one for anyone. It's a terrible disappointment.

I had heard great things about this series of books so when I had the opportunity, I decided to buy a copy for my toddler. Now, I'm not familiar with the series, so maybe they're all like this, but I was a little disappointed with the actual writing. Board books are usually geared towards the toddler/pre-school age group and typically have a nice rhythm, particularly those that are meant as "going to bed" books (to help lull kids to sleep). But this text has no rhythm or rhyme, no flow. In fact, many of the pages are actually quite awkward to read aloud (the page about the Petrified Forest is a prime example).

That said, the overall book is quite nice. The illustrations are well done, even if the people are a little more "cartoony" than the backgrounds, but still appealing for kids. There are plenty of brightly colored items to catch my toddler's attention. I agree with the other reviews, the Arizona athletes could use a little work, but I assumed that maybe there was some sort of licensing issue there which is why they don't have logos or mascots represented (the colors of the jerseys are pretty close at least). And while there are certainly many other Arizona attractions that they could have included, I think they covered a pretty good mix.

After reading this the last review I would agree that the sports team page in the book could use some work, but my daughter absolutely loves the book! ( even the sports page- she likes naming all the different sports). She likes to point to and name all the different types of animals and desert vegetation. I do like the part about the aspens and the pine trees, while Arizona is famous for its desert, it also has hundreds of thousands of acres of pine trees and Aspen forest- my family loves to camp, so our daughter enjoys looking at these pages. Overall, I feel the author did a very good job of illustrating lots of different things in this book that represent Arizona and have bought several copies to share with our out of state friends. I would recommend this book as a good children's book to learn about Arizona- there are very few children's books about the southwest.