Good Night, Sleep Tight
Ben and Bonnie’s babysitter, Skinny Doug, has a cool way to put his charges to sleep—with familiar rhymes. Familiar to him, that is. “Good night, sleep tight. / Hope the fleas don’t bite!” is one. “This Little Piggy” and “Pat-a-cake” are others. But they are new to the children, who say the same thing after each recitation: “‘We love it! We love it!’ said Bonnie and Ben. ‘How does it go? Will you say it again?’” Skinny Doug does not repeat, though. Instead he says, “I’ll tell you another. / I heard from my mother.” (This interplay does get the tiniest bit tired by the book’s end.) While a couple of the ditties will be new to American audiences (like “Round and round the garden / Like a teddy bear”), most will have children chanting along. The Quentin Blake–style pictures alternate between simple, warm scenes of Doug and his charges and the amusing ink-and-watercolor pictures that illustrate the rhymes, sometimes quite intricately. A fun book that will remind parents to pass along the golden oldies. Preschool-Grade 1. --Ilene Cooper