I WILL HOLD YOU ’TIL YOU SLEEP

The very model of an instantly beloved bedtime story, destined to replace any number of lesser, though popular efforts. In lambent cadence, the text takes the form of a lullaby, with gently repeated phrases: “I will hold you ’til you sleep / Safe and warm within my arms / Dream of springtime’s gentle breezes / While my lullaby surrounds you / Dearest baby, child of mine / I will hold you ’til you sleep.” Muth’s exquisite watercolor and gouache images take the tale from spring to autumn, winter and spring again, as a small boy grows and his parents age. In one example, “I will kiss you when you fall” depicts first the mother comforting the boy when he’s fallen from his bike, and then the same phrase shows the father consoling a teenage boy while in the distance a girl is running off hand-in-hand with another guy. The lovely reassurance of, “I will love you all your life,” is echoed visually, as the boy, holding a cell phone in a European church square, faces a page where the graying parents are smiling into their phone. It closes with rainbows, grandchildren and the suggestion to carry the love forward. This isn’t cheap sentimentality, but deep feeling and lovely art perfectly in tune. (Picture book. 4-9)