Poetry - Rhymes, Nursery Rhymes & Fingerplays, Fiction - General & Miscellaneous, Fiction - Basic Concepts

Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead

Name: Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead
Author: Ruth Krauss
ISBN: 9780694015016

by Ruth Krauss, Jane Dyer

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Overview

A young child bids her surroundings an affectionate goodnight before settling down for a peaceful night's sleep. This classic bedtime tale is perfect for lulling little sleepyheads to bed.

In simple rhyming text, a child says goodnight to the things around her.

Synopsis

A young child bids her surroundings an affectionate goodnight before settling down for a peaceful night's sleep. This classic bedtime tale is perfect for lulling little sleepyheads to bed.

Child Magazine

"Goodnight eyes/Goodnight nose/Goodnight fingers/Goodnight toes." Lilting rhymes and peaceful illustrations make this an ideal bedtime book. Dyer updates Krauss's 1964 classic with sweet scenes of a child saying goodnight to her surroundings, from the teddy bear she rubs noses with to the bed she climbs into. (Ages birth to 2)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2004

About the Author, Ruth Krauss

Ruth Krauss, a member of the experimental Writer’s Laboratory at the Bank Street School in New York City in the 1940s, imaginatively used humor and invented words to create some of the very first books for children that highlighted a child’s inner life. She collaborated with some of the greatest illustrators in children’s literature, including Maurice Sendak and her husband, Crockett Johnson.

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Editorials

From The Critics

Publishers Weekly

Jane Dyer brings her tender touch to a bedtime book by Ruth Krauss in Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead, which pairs text from Krauss's 1964 Eyes Nose Fingers Toes with Dyer's characteristically affectionate watercolors of a toddler and ever-patient mother. A "Baby Sleeping" door hanger is included. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

Originally published as Eyes Nose Fingers Toes, this simple lullaby captures perfectly the nightly ritual of young children. The desire to say goodnight to everyone and everything is made visual in soft watercolors. As a baby says goodnight to each of her toys and puts them to bed, she becomes sleepy herself and willingly climbs into bed as mother kisses her goodnight. The simple text harmonizes with gentle illustrations to create a perfect bedtime story. Whether squirmy or sleepy, children reading this book with an adult will find a good model for how to get ready for bed. The final illustration shows baby and all her toys tucked in for the night—a restful, peaceful vision of what every parent hopes for! 2004, HarperCollins, Ages 3 to 6.
—Leah Hanson

School Library Journal

PreS-Dyer illustrates a text that was originally published as Eyes Nose Fingers Toes (Harper & Row, 1964; o.p.). Gentle rhymes tell the story of a toddler saying good night to her surroundings, her stuffed animals, and her mother. She snuggles her lamb, touches noses with her bear, and compares toes with her dinosaur. The simple spreads on which the baby bids good night to her toys are awash with soothing pastel watercolor backgrounds. While the stuffed animals are endearing, the child and her mother are not as appealing; they have old-fashioned, doll-like, and expressionless round faces delineated by a few simple lines and tiny rosebud mouths. The few pages where there is more color, detail, pattern, and activity work the best.-Shelley B. Sutherland, Niles Public Library District, IL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Krauss's blatant variation on Goodnight Moon, originally published as Eyes, Nose, Fingers, Toes (1964) with illustrations by Elizabeth Schneider, gets an intimate remake thanks to Dyer's gentle sleepy-time scenes of a chubby, rosebud-lipped toddler surrounded by plush companions-each of which (child included) gets put to bed to a rhythmic litany: "Goodnight windows / Goodnight doors / Goodnight walls / Goodnight floors." A dinosaur toy provides the only bit of updating here; otherwise the art is as time-unspecific as the text. Dyer's illustrations are typically in an oversized format, each double-paged spread on 10 x 10 pages, a different pastel background on each, allowing the full effect of her soft colors to envelope the reader. Often the plush animal takes up the entire two pages. Then, when she gets to the walls, windows, and doors, she reverts to one page for each, setting the scene against stark white backgrounds, and coming back to the pastel for the closing shot of mother and child. Short, sweet-and comfortably familiar. (Picture book. 3-5). . . Kurtz, JaneTHE FEVERBIRD'S CLAWGreenwillow/HarperCollins (304 pp.)$15.99PLB $16.89May 1, 2004