Nature's Lullaby Fills the Night

by Dee Leone, Bali Engel (Illustrator)

Overview

Night falls, and the world sings a lullaby in this beautifully imagined picture book. The lush illustrations and gentle, rhyming text will lull young readers to sleep.
Shh—listen. Can you hear the quiet, loving sounds of the nighttime world? From moths fluttering their powdery wings, to a nightingale’s sweet trills, to swaying willow trees softly shushing, shushing everyone to sleep, this rhythmic, rhyming lullaby will soothe and calm little ones. The tender, nature-filled bedtime scenes sweep across land, sky, and sea, with animal parents everywhere tucking in their children. A final scene featuring a mother and her baby brings the whole story back home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781454921394
Publisher:	Union Square Kids
Publication date:	02/06/2018
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 18 Years

About the Author

Dee Leone is the author of Bizz and Buzz Make Honey Buns (Grosset & Dunlap) and Dough Knights and Dragons (Sterling). Many of her stories, poems, plays, and activity puzzles have appeared in children's magazines. Dee taught at the elementary level in several states and was also a gifted-program aide. Dee lives with her husband and two daughters in San Diego.

Bali Engel is an illustrator and director at Bat Collective, a studio she cofounded with her husband. She lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

A new addition to the canon of bedtime stories focusing on nature. Leone’s rhyming text and Engel’s stylized digital illustrations present an array of habitats, all encased in the soothing dark colors of the night. The mood is peaceful and drowsy as readers venture into a variety of nightscapes. First, the book explores the world of nocturnal insects—moths, spiders, and crickets, surrounded by grasses and leaves. Birds in the trees and the water, sea animals, and more familiar farm and forest animals are also shown as families with their young settling down. Plant petals ‘curl up gently for the night’ and a sprinkling of seeds are described as ‘drifting wanderers, white as snow,’ that ‘parachute where dreams can grow.’ The rhyming text is comforting and descriptive. . . . Each section closes with a repeat of ‘Nature’s lullaby fills the night,’ adding to the soothing idea that the whole world is drifting off to sleep, including the baby being embraced by his mother on the final page. VERDICT An appealing addition to an already crowded genre. It would be a good choice for those seeking a bedtime book that also cultivates an appreciation for nature and the many different types of creatures that inhabit the night.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

2017-11-27
Those wishing to cultivate a state of wakefulness would do well to avoid this book at all costs. Glimpses of forests, meadows, lakes, farms, and seas all help to soothe restless child readers as bedtime draws near. With a balanced and fluid text, Leone draws readers into a blue-tinged nightscape where "Moths with powdery wings so soft / gently stir the air aloft." As depicted by Engel in pleasant, digital art, stylized parent animals in a variety of landscapes tuck in their offspring and one another, first insects, then plants, birds, sea creatures, farm animals, woodland dwellers, and then a beige-skinned mother and child. The repeated line "Nature's lullaby fills the night" rounds out every sequence. The book carefully eschews the excitement of the day for the comfort of night. Although it does its job very well, however, it feels studiedly generic, and there is little here that makes it stand out from the countless lullaby and bedtime books gone before. For nighttime fare that doesn't sacrifice interest for sleep, consider similar nature books such as Richard Jackson and Katherine Tillotson's All Ears, All Eyes (2017) or Rita Gray and Kenard Pak's When the World Is Dreaming (2016). That said, as a soporific tool, this book might well lull parents and children alike into a stupor.Snoozeworthy. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews