From School Library Journal
PreS–While a little girl sleeps, toy animals describe their nighttime activities on her behalf: checking under the bed for monsters, pulling up the covers, scaring away bad dreams, preventing her from waking when Santa comes, and more. Their repayment is the love they receive as bedside toys. The soft-focus artwork verges on being overly dark at times, but it has a lot of nice texture, and the spread of the stuffed animals huddled together in the dark, with fearful, glowing eyes, works beautifully. While the story is slight, the gentle text flows well and will please children who fantasize about their playthings coming alive while they slumber.
–Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PreS. A child can sleep from dusk to dawn, but for her bedside toys, the work goes on. Five stuffed animals collectively describe how they spend their nights working (unbeknownst to the child) to make sure their charge, a young girl, sleeps well. Their tasks include checking the cupboards, corners, and under the bed (if they are feeling brave); making sure that the girl is comfortable and that she doesn't wake up on the night Santa appears. The scariest things are bedbugs, which are easily squashed (but not shown) and bad dreams (also not shown), which are scared away when the toys don such things as a badminton birdie and goofy sunglasses. The final scene, in which the girl awakens to cuddle the animals, shows why they are devoted to their jobs. The muted colors and the sketchy loose style of the pastel-type artwork pairs well with the gentle text, and the idea of having such capable creatures standing guard gives the whole a comforting, old-fashioned feeling.
Randall EnosCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
