Night Boy

March 15, 2012
A story that imagines Night and Day as siblings at play becomes mired in a muddled attempt to do too many things at once. Night is a prince who chases his older sister, Day, across the sky in a game of hide-and-seek. In a spaceship loaded with comets and stars, he and his teddy bear paint the sky with constellations. Brightly colored, cartoon-like artwork sets the stage for fun, with the sleepy, befuddled prince forgetting, as he does each night, that he's supposed to be hunting for his sister. Astronomical elements are thrown into the text and illustrations almost as an instructional afterthought, too often missing the mark. Picture books in rhyme ought to be a pleasure to read aloud, but here the forced meter makes it hard to establish a natural cadence. Where the rhyme does scan properly, it results in heavy, plodding verse that often weakens the story: "The spaceship takes off with a plug-your-ears boom / and blasts into space with a hold-on-tight zoom. / Teddy's distracted. He just wants his snack. / Milk and fresh cookies smell good in the back." Not up to the standard Carter set in her previous award-winning outings (Under a Prairie Sky, 2004, etc.). (Picture book. 4-7)

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May 1, 2012

PreS-Gr 1-Before going to bed, Night, portrayed as a little boy, plays hide-and-go-seek with his big sister, Day. Accompanied by his teddy bear and carrying bagfuls of stars (and some milk and cookies), he hops into his spaceship and races off to find her. As he searches, he arranges the stars into constellations and creates the Milky Way by dropping his snacks. Ultimately, he fails to find Day, but she calls him back to their house, tucking him in upon his return and promising to play again after he wakes up. Painted predominantly in purples and blues, the acrylic spreads attempt to offer a sweeping portrayal of Night's journey. However, the cartoon-styled characters' glazed, staring eyes; oversize heads; and generally static expressions ruin any charm this rhyming story may have had. Sprinkled throughout are a few Post-it-like notes from Day. These vignettes offer a diagram of the phases of the Moon, a compass rose, and the direction of the sun's travel throughout the sky (a brief nonfiction note about the day/night cycle would have been considerably more useful). Mixed metaphors and the uneven quality of the illustration make this book additional at best.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY

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