All on a Sleepy Night

Carol Bodrug is a former elementary-school teacher with the Durham Board
of Education.

All on a Sleepy Night is a beautiful, restful book, with text and
pictures intertwined on beige pages instead of white. A welcome change
from the “many scary shadows and monster under the bed” stories,
this calm, soothing, and hopefully sleep-inducing story is perfect for
reading at bedtime.

Written in rhyme, the story is about a small boy who goes to sleep at
his grandparents’ little log house in the woods. As he lies in bed,
the boy hears all the nighttime sounds inside the house—grandma and
grandpa snoring, the floor creaking, the faucets dripping. “The house
about him is singing / Singing its sleepy song.” He also hears all of
the sounds of the nighttime activities outside the house—the trucks on
the road and nocturnal animals. All of the sounds have a hypnotic effect
on him. Soon “one small boy on his grandparents’ bed is asleep and
dreaming along.”

Sylvie Daigneault uses a cool palette of rich blues, greens, and
purples to beautifully illustrate the story. Her textured, detailed,
humorous paintings enhance the “going to bed” theme and reinforce
the positive message that sounds in the night are not scary.
Recommended.