Review by New York Times Review
I DON'T KNOW about yours, but my bedtime reading does not generally - ever, actually - include books about falling asleep. This should seem strange only to young children, for whom the provision of books about sleeping and not sleeping has captured a large slice of the picture book market. Dr. Robert Needlman, who revised and updated Dr. Benjamin Spock's "Baby and Child Care," once told me that the purpose of bedtime stories is to give the imagination a kind of way station between wakefulness and sleep that facilitates an easier slip into unconsciousness. (We were talking about young children, but I think this goes for all of us.) So books for bedtime, sure. But why about? Four new books, swaddled in practically identical shades of sleepy-time blue, attempt to make a case for the genre. Some do a better job than others. "Goodnight Songs" is a collection of verses, most previously unpublished, by Margaret Wise Brown - herself of course the author of the bedtime classic "Goodnight Moon," itself the progenitor of countless imitators eager to become the next baby shower staple. This collection won't be it - where "Goodnight Moon" is all concentrated strangeness and mystery, the poems in "Goodnight Songs" are individually repetitive and carelessly developed sprouts of whimsy. With each of the 12 selections illustrated by a different children's book artist - including Sophie Blackall, Dan Yaccarino, Eric Puybaret and Melissa Sweet - the book lurches more than progresses from spread to spread. According to an editor's note, Brown had conceived these poems as song lyrics, and a compact disc of pallid but grating renditions is duly included in the kind of package that suggests you're getting more for your money than you actually are. From the Italian team of the writer Giovanna Zoboli and the illustrator Simona Mulazzani, and translated by Antony Shugaar, "The Big Book of Slumber" is a humbler and more consistent effort, cataloging in rhyme and picture the sleeping arrangements of an entirely peaceable kingdom. Fancifully so, what with the camels in bunk beds and doves on the chaise longue. The juxtapositions are funny but unfrantic, gentled by the sweet couplets ("Dormouse and badger in beds side by side. / 'I like your pajamas,' friend badger confides") and piquant but restful paintings. The matter-of-factness with which a fox sleeps under a star-strewn baby-blue duvet beneath the purple sky offers both strangeness and comfort. The book lacks shape - you could put the pages in any order and not notice the difference - but does not want for mood. Lilli Carré's "Tippy and the Night Parade" is of a size and style more intended for independent reading than sharing. Toon Books is a grandchild of Raw magazine, the underground comics venue founded in 1980 by the cartoonist Art Spiegelman and his wife, Françoise Mouly, now the art editor of The New Yorker and Toon's publisher and editorial director. While respectably hardcover and didactically appended with suggestions for reading guidance, "Tippy" uses the paneled art and speech balloons of comics and displays its downtown roots through an offbeat color palette (cantaloupe, chocolate and gunmetal blue), blithe generalization of form and a bed-headed heroine who looks as much the hipster gamin as she does a little girl. The narrative, though, is completely old-school children's book: An uncomprehending Tippy is chastised by her mother for the messy state of her bedroom, filled as it is with a peacock, bunny, turtle and various detritus from the natural world. Who will not see that these are but souvenirs of Tippy's somnambulistic wanderlust? She makes another trip the very same night, this time counting among her haul a goat, crab and bear. While the details of Tippy's nighttime walk are mildly funny - and maybe mildly is as funny as you want at bedtime? - there's not really enough going on here to make a child want to go through the story more than once. Maybe the rules are different for comic books (although we certainly reread them with avidity), but any bedtime book worthy of the name needs to work its magic over and over again, like bedtime prayers. The little girl of "Hannah's Night" is also a night wanderer, but her territory is the secure confines of her home, and she's wide awake. As with her previous books, "Emily's Balloon" and "The Snow Day," the Japanese author-illustrator Komako Sakai finds picture-book drama by letting a young child's perceptions - of a new balloon, unexpected weather - play out unfiltered by adult perspective. Hannah finds herself surprised to wake while it's still dark, and at a bit of a loss for what to do, goes off to have a pee (with cat Shiro companionably doing his own business in the litter box next to the toilet). She then raids the fridge (milk for Shiro, cherries for her), looks out at the moon and daringly borrows her big sister's doll right from under her sleeping nose, securing the sister's music box and some art supplies while she's at it. It's a big night. Rather than throwing about some nocturnal nonsense to give Hannah something to do, the book allows the girl's own resourcefulness to provide the story, demonstrating a respect for toddlers and their world matched by the pictures, serious blues and purples warmed by comfortably scratchy lines and anchored by protectively rounded borders. Exciting but safe, Hannah's world is one that would-be dreamers will welcome as a first step into sleep. Whatever it takes. But there's no reason to think kids need to read or hear about bedtime at bedtime any more than you do. If we recognized that children read for the same reasons as adults - the walk into dreamland being among them - the books we intend for their pleasure might look a whole lot different. ROGER SUTTON is editor in chief of The Horn Book Magazine.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 11, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
Somehow Tippy's bedroom is a terrible mess every morning. When she wakes up in her sunny orange room, there are animals and debris everywhere! How does it happen? Tippy is not sure, but as night descends in a lovely muted blue palette and she drifts off to sleep, she starts sleepwalking right out her window, through a garden, and into a huge hole in the ground and all the while, animals are following her. An angry crab clasps the hem of her nightshirt; the crab snaps up a flower; the flower attracts a bee; the bee looks like a tasty snack to a big-bellied frog; and so on; until there is a mole, a bear, and many others in tow. Soon Tippy brings the coterie of creatures back home, and another orange morning begins with What is this mess? Carre's whimsical story, told in spare, large panels, is just simple enough for beginning comics readers, but the surreal, blocky figures set on beautifully minimal backgrounds are a pleasure at any age.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Carre (Heads or Tails) brings her talents to a younger audience with the story of a girl's somnambulism and the chaos it creates. Except for a few scenes bathed in the pale oranges of sunset and sunrise, Carre uses a palette of steely gray-blues as bedheaded Tippy strides out the front door-eyes closed, and the trace of a smile on her lips. Tippy narrates in suppositional speech bubbles (she's a sleep-talker, too). "Maybe I walked out into the garden," she muses, doing just that as a protective crab clings to her nightgown, "because I wanted to hop across the lily pads." As Tippy wanders through Carre's panels, falling down a "big hole" and emerging in a cactus patch, she acquires a train of animals that leave her bedroom in disarray. "What is this mess?" her mother shouts the next morning. "I don't know, Mama," Tippy replies as a goat chews on her hair. "All I remember... is falling asleep!" Carre's curvy cartoons brim with quirky humor, and although Tippy is unconscious throughout her adventure, it's evident that she's the sort of girl whose waking life is plenty interesting, too. Ages 4-8. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-This quirky comic for early readers offers simple panels with easy-to-find details and monochromatic color schemes-orange for the day and shades of blue for the night. When Tippy wakes in the morning, her room is a mess of shells, plants, and animals that have somehow found their way into her house. Readers will be able to guess at the answer as the girl recounts what could have happened: she sleepwalks outdoors, seemingly taking a night stroll, and gathers a following of animals who watch over her throughout her nocturnal adventure. Consistent with the Toon Book line, tips for reading comics with children appear in the back matter. Carre's retro and dreamy illustrations readily lend themselves to visual literacy practices: kids can "ham it up" with sound effects (bumps, scrapes, and animal sounds), and parents and educators can let children guess about the context of the pictures.-Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Tippy awakens one morning to utter chaos: a bird on her head, a pig in her bed, a horse at her bedroom window, and detritus on the floor. "What is this MESS?" demands Tippy's traumatized mother, but Tippy is clueless. However, all is revealed soon enough: Tippy sleepwalks, attracting followers on her somnambulistic ramblings la the Pied Piper. As Tippy steps out her door, a crab snatches the hem of her nightgown in one claw and a nearby tulip in the other. A buzzing bee follows the tulip, a frog tries to catch the bee, and so on. Tippy eventually leads the cumulative procession back into her own bedroom, where it's dj vu all over again: beleaguered Mama wonders, "What is this MESS?!"; Tippy replies, "All I rememberis falling ASLEEP!" In her first book for young children, cartoonist Carr repeats key phrases in the text to help beginning readers: "Maybe I walked into the gardenWho knows?" Tippy's calm, sleepy suppositions clash deliciously with the gradually increasing disorder found in the accompanying panels. Young readers will delight in all the crazy details: the mice dancing on the headboard of Tippy's bed; the mole's hilarious devotion to the bear; the goat chewing Tippy's hair as the story ends. Carr skillfully employs a limited color palette, with warm oranges underscoring the messy mayhem of Tippy's room and cool midnight blues and slate grays providing a serene backdrop for Tippy's late-night ramblings. sam bloom (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A sleepwalking child picks up an animal entourageevery nightin this winsome, circular debut. When her annoyed mom wonders how her room came to be such a mess, Tippy can only shrug and speculate: "Maybe last night I walked out the door." In a re-enactment that is also a new adventure, she passes over a dock, through a misty wood, down a deep hole, through a cactus patch and so back home. Along the way, she unconsciously collects a train of creatures, from a bee to a bear, that all make a new mess for her mother to discover in the morning. Interactions among the animals following her add small subplots and side actions: A frog pursues a bumblebee that's always just out of tongue's reach; a little mole falls in love with a bear that does not reciprocate. Dressed in a comfy gown and striped socks, Tippy strolls, climbs and drifts in smiling slumber through a succession of flat, sometimes-silhouetted scenes done in restful blues and grays. Occasional sound effects and comments in dialogue balloons furnish the text for her nightly ramble. A dreamy, slightly more visually sophisticated alternative to Peggy Rathmann's Good Night, Gorilla (1994). (Graphic early reader. 4-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
