SOME BABIES SLEEP

Cotten’s latest is cleverly formatted to suit different audiences. Relating the different ways and places that animal babies sleep, the gentle rhymes make this perfect for bedtime. At the same time, the text provides clues that point to animals that are not pictured, making this ideal for wakeful times and group readings. “Some babies sleep / in a warm, cozy nest. / Some babies find / that a stall suits them best.” Featuring mammals and marsupials, there are also allusions to some aquatic and avian animals. Tong’s oil paintings use soft colors and moonlight illumination to set the mood for sleep. But his animals are rather fuzzily rendered, putting a curtain between the readers and the scene, and keeping them from truly getting into the same somnolent state as the red-pajama–clad baby who sleeps among the creatures in each spread. This has some appeal for group readings, but doesn’t come close to equaling Mem Fox’s Time for Bed. (1993) (Picture book. 2-6)