Review by Booklist Review
All over the farm, parents are tucking their little ones into bed, and every adult recites a slightly different version of the same, cuddly bedtime rhyme: "Snuggle-lamb, / Snuggle-lamb, / leap right into bed. / I'll tuck you in a grassy field / and kiss your woolly head." Each turn of the page introduces a different baby animal. But whether it's a bee, a duck, a robin, a chick, a piglet, or a bear cub, the little one is tucked into its sleeping space by a loving parent as it is beginning to doze. The rhymes themselves, with their soothing sounds and intentional repetition, make this book a good choice for reading aloud to tired children, and kids who focus on the illustrations will find them pleasing as well. The art features gently rounded forms as well as a restrained use of color, using a dominant hue effectively on each double-page spread. Recommended for bedtime reading, this picture book is well designed for lulling young children to sleep.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Numerous animal pairs wind down with species-specific bedtime routines in Murray's gently reiterative rhymes. Featuring familiar creatures including bear cubs, lambs, piglets, ducklings, and more, quatrains open with snuggle-inspired summons ("Snuggle-bunny, snuggle-bunny"). First-person lines then smoothly proceed to habitat-appropriate tuck-ins (a "golden hive" for a "snuggle-bee") along with a loving kiss (on the "pointy beak" of a "snuggle-chick"). The combination yields mesmerizing stanzas ready-made for human imitation: "Snuggle-frog, snuggle-frog,/ under dreamy skies,/ I'll tuck you in a lily pad/ and kiss your sleepy eyes." Handmade textures and digital techniques lend each cuddly scene of an animal parent and youth the soft, almost pointillist fuzziness of a textile--just like the concluding blanket that helps tuck in a pale-skinned human youth. Ages 4--8. (Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Nothing's so soothing at bedtime as a tender parental snuggle. On each successive page, a different animal parent--a bunny, a bear, a bee, a hen, a sheep, a pig, a duck, a fish, a frog, a robin, and, at last, a human--tucks a precious babe in and tenderly kisses the little one. Expressing themselves in gentle, lilting verse with the cadence of a soft lullaby, these parents wish their babies a loving good night. Each spread begins with the wordsnuggle: "Snuggle-duckling, snuggle-duckling, / not another quack!" Youngsters listening to these soothing words will not only be lulled into peaceful slumbers themselves, but will also glean some easy science lessons as the animal parents describe their children's physical characteristics. The bear mentions its youngster's "tiny claws," the hen points out her chick's "pointy beak," and the duck refers to the duckling's "downy back." Each parent also identifies its little one's bedding. The little bunny gets tucked into a bed of "garden leaves," the bee in a "golden hive," and the sheep in a "grassy field." Rendered in a warm palette, Santoso's illustrations, created digitally and with handmade textures, are as plush and comforting as the downy blanket enfolding the human "snuggle-baby" in the final spread. (It's no coincidence that the cuddly infant is surrounded by stuffed toy versions of the animals in the story.) Human characters present white. Make this irresistibly snuggly book a part of your nightly bedtime ritual.(Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
