Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This short, penetrating story by Roumiguière, originally published in France, looks at Nasla's first bedtime after she has her father move her stuffed animals to the top of the wardrobe--she's too old to sleep with them, she says. Nasla knows that her toy turtle, "Timboubou the elephant... the mushroom castle, the hippo with the broken foot," and the others are all atop the wardrobe "in a nice neat pile." But in the dark, she sees something else up there: a glowing dot, "a little eye, like an opening in the dark night." She yearns to investigate, "But at night, you do not play. At night, you sleep." Rea renders Nasla's perceptions with polished, editorial-style imagery: Timboubou's trunk moves, a tree grows through the floor, Nasla floats on a cloud as if it were a raft. As the yellow glow seems to threaten, Nasla imagines ghosts, monsters--then remembers a treasure that will help her fall asleep. Roumiguière establishes Nasla persuasively as both a child with limited agency and an independent thinker who can solve her own problems, while Rea paints the girl's thoughts and perceptions with remarkable artwork that highlights imagination and dreamlike imagery. Ages 4--8. (Sept.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2--Nasla is trying to sleep but is distracted by the yellow glow of an eye above her wardrobe. Who is looking at her? Her stuffed turtle or elephant, or any of the other toys her father neatly stacked on top of the wardrobe yesterday when Nasla told him she was too old for them? In addition to wondering about that eye, Nasla wants to sing, talk to her toys, and play with the Moon, but at night you do not do those things--you sleep. Nasla's imagination takes flight--does the glowing dot threaten her? Luckily, Nasla has a secret charm, her old baby blanket, to ward off the unknowns of the night. She soon drifts off to dream of her old toys, as the cat jumps down from the wardrobe and blinks her yellow eye. Roumiguière's text meanders, but always returns to the mysterious dot. Rea provides a fever dream of illustrations done in oil, with bold backgrounds on which a variety of two-dimensional images are a dreamy visual counterpoint to the text. VERDICT This French import addresses the fears of the unknown in the night with a perfect resolution, plus a little whimsy thrown in for good measure. The gloom of night, impressively captured, make this ideal for one-on-one sharing.--Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Lib., Troy, NH
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Review by Horn Book Review
On the first spread of this surrealistic picture book (originally published in France) we see a yellow circle set high on the page against a shadowy black oil-painted background. The text reads: "Nasla is not asleep. Lying in her bed, she sees a yellow dot above the wardrobe. A little eye, like an opening in the dark night." Turning the page, we meet Nasla, with a swoop of orange-red hair, sitting astride a small cloud looking up at where she'd asked her father to put her stuffed animals and broken dolls, having felt too old to sleep with toys. She wonders what would happen if the dot were to grow, and the following spread shows an enormous moon filling a room that has red walls (matching Nasla's hair). Everything Nasla wonders is both intriguing and potentially ominous: "What if it becomes big enough to swallow her whole?" Roumiguire's text explores how a young person copes with the decision to put childish things aside, and Rea conveys Nasla's inventive thoughts with vibrant color and surreal effects, such as a wavy blue floor. The text and pictures play back and forth with real things (Nasla's stuffed animals) and wondered things (including a wild rumpuslike parade), leaving lots of room for child readers to interpret and imagine for themselves. Susan Dove Lempke January/February 2021 p.92(c) Copyright 2021. 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
This French import about a child's nighttime coping mechanisms asks, why grow up too fast? Young Nasla has decided she is old enough to sleep without her favorite plush animals and toys. But at night, she sees a yellow dot in the darkness and a shadow above the wardrobe, where her father put her toys. Could that dot be her toy turtle? And when the shadow moves, she discovers it's Timboubou, her toy elephant, who appears as a flesh-and-blood elephant in Nasla's nocturnal visions. Nasla repeatedly tries to talk herself into an independence that the illustrations make clear she is not ready to accept. She may remind herself that she's a "big girl now" and that night is for sleeping (not playing), but she admits that she wants to dance with the Moon, who appears in three forms (yellow, red, and silver) on human legs, and she dreams of her old toys. The delightfully bizarre, dreamlike illustrations of the girl's fantastical night visions possess a simple elegance. And there's a poignancy to Nasla's decision, after she imagines ominous, long-armed ghosts and giant squids and hears "breathing in the dark," to cling to a small blanket her mother gave her when she was a baby (her "secret charm")--to keep herself safe from the yellow eyes (their source is revealed as feline at the book's close) and the eccentric and surreal creatures she sees in her mind's eye. Nasla has pale skin and bright red hair. Trippy and touching. (Picture book. 4-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
