The Bunny's Night-Light: A Glow-in-the-Dark Search
“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 Medal–winning 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. Preschool-Kindergarten. --Andrew Medlar