With its layered, metaphoric language and equally textured illustrations, this outstanding collection of 16 bedtime poems will enthrall its audience. Like the images found in compelling dreams, Malone's (The World of King Arthur and His Court) combination of old and new elements is both real and timeless. The evocative paintings of nighttime wonders are partly conjured from Britain's past. Barbara Juster Esbensen's "dark magician" in "Nightfall" could easily be a character from The Little Princess as he moves Chagall-like through the sky, wearing a turban and star-studded cape; the eponymous hero of Arthur Guiterman's "The Starlighter" sports a Victorian lamplighter's top hat; the greedy North Wind in Vachel Lindsay's poem munches the moon in Shakespearean stage dress. Malone tackles more contemporary scenes with equal agility: the shadow of Dennis Lee's protective "Gentle Giant" looms over a suburban landscape and sends diminutive "bad men" scurrying; and Norma Farber's "Manhattan Lullaby" offers a view from a high-rise apartment building. A few of the illustrations divide into four pane-like scenes (e.g., a quartet of portraits of "The Mouse" by Elizabeth Coatsworth; and visual interpretations of Louis Untermeyer's four "Questions at Night"), but Malone renders most as full-page illustrations in quiltlike blocks. Each is individually stunning and, despite the varied moods, contributes to the effectiveness of the book as a unified whole. The exceptional images enhance the poems' meaty, figurative language without overpowering or co-opting the words. This bedtime book will inspire interesting dreams long after lights-out. Ages 3-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
reSchool-Grade 2-There's nothing quite as satisfying as a thoughtful anthology, and Pearson, like Belinda Hollyer in Dreamtime (Viking, 1999), clearly knows the poetry of the night. Old favorites like Eugene Field's "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Windy Nights" are included as are Norma Farber's "Manhattan Lullaby" (" up where city children sleep, lulled by rumble, babble, beep") and Barbara Juster Esbensen's "Nightfall" (One by one that dark magician Night folds the colors of the day like scarves and hides them in his sleeves"). Each of the 16 selections is enhanced by a marvelously inventive and evocative painting. Malone's images are rich in color and impressionistic detail that perfectly capture the hyperrealist and magical quality of dreams. This collection is as welcome as a warm blanket and a favorite teddy bear at bedtime, yet it begs to be savored any time of day.
Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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