The Bunny's Night-Light

November 7, 2011
Hayes’s (the Benny and Penny books) sweet bedtime book has gentle, repetitive prose that tells the story of Bunny and her Papa, who go searching for a nightlight. Bunny objects to all the lights they find (the moon is “too bright,” the stars “too twinkly,” the fireflies “too busy”) until Mama presents Bunny with the perfect nightlight, which casts comforting shadows on the wall. The book’s lilting rhythms end with a poem that ties into the book’s underlying, reassuring message that while nighttime may seem dark,
“here’s always a light somewhere.” Just right for the subject matter, Hayes’s cartoons are, as usual, friendly and warm, including cozy village scenes surrounded by a gray-blue border filled with images of clouds, bedtime reading, and the night sky. Throughout the book, various light sources—those mentioned in the story and others—are treated with a glow-in-the-dark coating. While the gimmick is likely to please young readers, having to repeatedly turn the lights on and off (in order to appreciate the phosphorescent effect) may make for some slow-glowing bedtime reading. Ages 3–6.

November 15, 2011
When Bunny announces that he cannot sleep because "[t]here's too much dark at night," he and Papa go off on the subtitle's promised "Glow-in-the-Dark Search" for the perfect night-light. The text presents a comforting, if slight exchange between father and child as Papa points out potential night-lights and Bunny rejects them: The moon? Too bright. Stars? Too twinkly. Fireflies? Too busy. Papa never loses patience as their hunt takes them from their front door to field and shore and all around rabbit town, when Papa finally realizes that Bunny wants a light in his room. They return home again, where Mama solves the problem by unpacking the night-light she used as a child. Each spread is framed by a repeating border of vignettes in soothing indigo blue. The illustrations are suffused with earthy colors and muted pinks, blues and greens, creating such a cozy scene of town and home that children will want to move in. However, the rabbits' faces are sometimes distorted, and the promised glow-in-the-dark lights are disappointingly dim unless read under the covers, spread by spread, with a flashlight flicking on and off. The book, a revision of A Night-Light for Bunny (2004), is only partly successful in execution. Children who want soothing at bedtime may do better with House in the Night, by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Beth Krommes (2008), or the classic Goodnight Moon. (Picture book. 2-5)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

PreS-Gr 1-Bunny can't sleep because of the dark bedroom and goes on a search with Papa for a suitable night-light. He suggests stars, but Bunny scoffs, "The stars are too twinkly to be a good night-light for me," so Papa then suggests the moon, a glowworm, and fireflies. Finally Mama has a solution to the problem. Hayes's characteristically cozy artwork will bring smiles to the faces of children and adults. Bunny's expressions range from concern to exasperation to disbelief that Papa would even suggest a streetlight as a possibility. Attractive borders frame the cartoonlike artwork. Each picture has at least one small fuzzy sticker that actually glows in the dark. After the initial reading of this bedtime story, the lights may be turned out and the pages turned one more time to view the glowing stickers. A sure choice to be reread.-Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2012
Preschool-K There's too much dark at night, claims Bunny to Papa one evening, so together they search their woodland community for the perfect illumination. The moon is too bright, fireflies too twinkly, and a streetlight too tall, but upon returning home, Mama suggests her old night-light (it's called little but it's almost as big as Bunny), which fills the need perfectly. While the artistic style is similar to Hayes' Geisel Medalwinning graphic novel Benny and Penny in the Big No-No! (2009), this is a more traditional format with gently drawn and colored bucolic scenes surrounded by nocturnal creatures scurrying around wide margins. Bunny is textually gender-neutral but depicted visually in traditionally girl-centric flowery pajamas, and Hayes seems likewise vague regarding how often he intends to rhyme, yet the story's soothing structure, the bunny's recognizable hesitation to sleep, the comforting conclusion, and the appealing, if somewhat gimmicky, glow-in-the-dark spots on each page (if it's light enough to read, it's too bright to see them) are all just right to help any youngster sleep tight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)