Synopsis
Tucked safely in bed, a child drifts toward sleep listening to the many sounds of nightfall. Within the child's creative mind, each sound elicits vivid images. Ever so gently, the child's thoughts slip farther and farther away until sleep finally comes. The story's imaginative, lilting text and daringly unpretentious black and white watercolor illustrations combine to make a bedtime story children will want to hear again and again.
School Library Journal
PreS-KThis bedtime story tells not only of night sounds, but also of night sightsof all the things that happen in the house of a young boy who is falling asleep, and of the events in his neighborhood. In layout and theme, the book resembles Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon (HarperCollins, 1947), although here the setting is mostly realistic. The design, with pictures on the right, text on the left, also recalls the earlier title. Unfortunately, Ray's black-and-white illustrations are not equal to the comparison. His pencil drawings never achieve enough contrast, and the eyes of the animals in some of the illustrations become cartoonish and out of place in a book that is otherwise naturalistic. The story is slight, its point unclear. There are many better titles to fall asleep by.Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA