Time for Bed
Author: Mem Fox
Darkness is falling everywhere and little ones are getting sleepy, feeling cozy, and being tucked in. It’s time for a wide yawn, a big hug, and a snuggle under the covers—sleep tight! “Working beautifully with the soothingly repetitive text, each painting conveys a warm feeling of safety and affection.”—School Library Journal
Publishers Weekly
Filling each spread, Dyer's (illustrator of the Piggins books and of Baby Bear's Bedtime Book ) commanding yet gentle, large-scale watercolors are the key to the appeal of this bedtime lullaby. Fox ( Possum Magic ; Guess What? ) offers sweet but slim verse that bids good night to a selection of animals being cuddled and coddled by their mothers, all endearingly rendered at eye-level. The rhymed couplets have a pleasantly lilting rhythm, if an occasionally trite rhyme scheme: ``It's time for bed, little sheep, little sheep, / The whole wide world is going to sleep.'' After viewing the various animals nodding off, youngsters will take their bedtime cue from a cherubic toddler, whose blond head falls into a pillow covered with golden stars as mother offers a hug and the text concludes: ``The stars on high are shining bright-- / Sweet dreams, my darling, sleep well . . . / good night!'' Ages 2-6. (Sept.)
Publishers Weekly
"Dyer's commanding yet gentle, large-scale watercolors are the key to the appeal of this bedtime lullaby," wrote PW of the hardcover edition of Time for Bed by Mem Fox, now available in an oversize board book edition. A host of parents nudge their little ones to sleep, from a mouse to a sheep to the final image of a smiling human mother tucking in her child.
Children's Literature
This endearing bedtime book is perfect for winding down with little ones at the end of a busy day. After reading it, you'll feel good too! Each large two-page illustration radiates genuine affection and celebrates the love between moms of all kinds and their young, as they ready them for bed. Mommy mouse embraces her baby. A sheep and her lamb rub muzzles. Mother cow and her calf exchange loving glances. Mommy horse and her foal nuzzle each other. And on and on, concluding with a human mommy tucking her young child in bed with this thought: "The stars on high are shining bright-Sweet dreams, my darling, sleep well... good night!" This book will melt your heart.
Children's Literature
Writer Mem Fox and illustrator Jane Dyer have a special gift for portraying warm, loving families that provide comfort for small children. Their talents are combined in Time for Bed, a rhyming lullaby. Fox names and Dyer pictures twelve sets of animal parents bedding down their young with kisses, hugs, snuggles and tenderness.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2-Charming illustrations and comfortable rhymes characterize this appealing bedtime book. A twilight mood is set by dusky endpapers sprinkled with twinkling yellow stars, and by a title page showing a mother reading to a child. Double-page spreads feature animal pairs, each with a parent settling its offspring down for the night. An orange tabby kitten receives a soothing bath, a sleepy blue bird is tucked into a warm nest, and a delicate fawn curls up against its mother. Each babe is lulled by a gently rhyming couplet beginning with the phrase, ``It's time for bed.'' Dyer's watercolor illustrations are dear. Large, clearly drawn animals are placed against backgrounds of vivid hues. A variety of landscapes keeps each scene looking fresh as a foal settles down in a moonlit meadow, a pair of fish blow bubbles in blue water, and two snakes curl up in overgrown grass. Working beautifully with the soothingly repetitive text, each painting conveys a warm feeling of safety and affection. A wonderful bedfellow for Ginsburg's Asleep, Asleep (Greenwillow, 1992).-Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library
BookList
Both parents and children should like this cozy good-night story. Against a blanket of blue sky full of golden stars, mother animals are putting their babies to sleep. Although the rhyme at times limps rather than lilts ("It's time for bed, little mouse, little mouse, / Darkness is falling all over the house"), there's a warmth to this that makes the whole more than the sum of its parts. Of course, one of the important parts is the art--striking watercolors that fill up the two-page spreads, showing a sheep and a lamb, a dog and a puppy, a cow and a calf, and others, the babies all with heavy lids, and the mothers affectionately nestling their young. The last mother-child duo is a mom and her curly-headed tot, who is wished sweet dreams and in the last picture is sound asleep. A pleasant prelude to slumber.
Book about: Natural Healing for Headaches or From the Heart
The Name of this Book Is Secret
Author: Pseudonymous Bosch
This is the story about a secret. but it also contains a secret story.
When adventurous detectives, Cass, an ever-vigilant survivalist, and Max-Ernest, a boy driven by logic, discover the Symphony of Smells, a box filled with smelly vials of colorful ingredients, they accidentally stumble upon a mystery surrounding a dead magician's diary and the hunt for immortality.
Filled with word games, anagrams, and featuring a mysterious narrator, this is a book that won't stay secret for long.
Publishers Weekly
Blending the offbeat humor of Lemony Snicket and insight into the preadolescent psyche à la Jerry Spinelli with the captivating conundrums of Blue Balliett, the debut novel from a pseudonymous author is equal parts supernatural whodunit, suspense-filled adventure and evocative coming-of-age tale. When an unlikely pair of 11-year-old outsiders-survivalist Cassandra and aspiring stand-up comedian Max-Ernest-team up to solve a mystery surrounding the alleged death of an old magician and the strange and wondrous possessions he left behind, they unwittingly cross paths with the villainous Dr. L and his ageless accomplice Ms. Mauvais, who are obsessed with finding the magician's notebook. After the diabolical duo shows up at Cass and Max-Ernest's school, one of their classmates (a gifted artist named Benjamin) goes missing. Convinced that Benjamin has been kidnapped and faces mortal danger, Cass and Max-Ernest track the doctor and his glove-wearing sidekick to an exclusive and remote "sensorium" cum spa, where they uncover an arcane, alchemical, potentially apocalyptic bombshell. Relayed by an often witty, sometimes arch narrator, and loaded with brainteasers-anagrams, coded messages, palindromes and more-as well as such bounty as a brief and idiosyncratic history of Benito Mussolini, the definition of synesthesia and how Earl Grey tea got its name, Bosch's deliberately eccentric offering is likely to acquire a cult following. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)
In fact, the narrator takes great pains not to reveal too much information throughout the book, even telling the audience to "forget everything as soon as I tell it." As the story unfolds, Cassandra (not her real name!) has come upon a puzzling box of "smells" and a message from a dead magician. Cassandra and Max-Ernest (not his real name either) embark on an exciting adventure that involves a strange notebook written in secret code, a magician who has inexplicably disappeared, and a "golden lady" who seems to be ageless and will do whatever she can to stay that way. David Pittu does a wonderful job of voicing the quirky narrator and gives each character a distinct and appropriate voice. This enjoyable tale will appeal to mystery fans who relish cracking riddles and solving puzzles.-Amy Joslyn, Fairport Public Library, NYKirkus Reviews
Though less common than their Harry Potter brethren, the Lemony Snicket imitators continue to crop up. Max-Ernst and Cassandra weren't likely friends from the start. Cass has pointy ears and wants to be prepared for every emergency (hence the backpack full of supplies she always carries). As for Max-Ernst, he can't stop talking. No one can diagnose the source of this problem, and it makes him a bit of a social pariah. When Cass discovers the mysterious accoutrements of a dead magician, she enlists Max-Ernst's help in determining whether or not the posthumous illusionist left clues amongst his belongings asking for help. What the kids discover instead is a cult of powerful men and women bent on immortality that will stop at nothing to preserve (one way or another) their way of life. The title references the tone of Lemony Snicket time and time again without ever conjuring up the same wit and wisdom. The story line is often engaging, but its ubiquitous narrative trope comes across as more annoying than insightful. (Fiction. 9-12)
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