GOOD NIGHT, SWEETIE

Author/illustrator Wan (You Are My Pumpkin, 2016, etc.) employs her characteristic digital illustrations inspired by Japanese pop art to introduce objects associated with bedtime in this board book.

Each object (star, moon, teddy bear, mobile, book, pillow) is drawn with a thick, black outline, personified with a pink-cheeked, smiling face, and introduced one at a time on a double-page spread. The rhyming text is in a large, clear type, with the object mentioned in a larger display type: “You are my wish upon a STAR / My bright, shining MOON from afar.” However, not all the objects match the words in the text. “My LULLABY so soft and lovely” shows a smiling cloud mobile, from which smiling birds, hearts, and other objects hang, and “My quiet, comfy, sleepy NOOK” features a smiling pillow on a curtained window seat. All the objects come together in the nursery on the last page, with their eyes shut, encouraging readers to go to sleep. “Wishing you sweet dreams on moonbeams! / Goodnight, Sweetie.” It’s all a fairly limp affair, and readers should instead grab Helen Oxenbury’s Say Goodnight (1999) or Cedric Ramdier and Vincent Bourgeau’s Shhh! This Book is Sleeping (2016) to lull their tots to sleep.

The cover, embossed and sparkly, may attract infants and toddlers, but the illustrations and the text do not make a connection that demands repeated readings.