After Good-Night

Mayper debuts in this lilting and entrancing bedtime poem. ""After good-night kiss and hug,/ After Mama's one more story/ and Daddy's Humpty-Dumpty song'' Nan and her doll become ``the eyes of the house'' and listen to its sounds. Nan holds her breath as ``a web of passing carlight/ slides across the ceiling'' and hears the ``secret ocean'' that ``hisses in the toilet tank.'' When all is quiet and dark, ``the wind bellies out the curtain'' until Nan in her ``bed-boat sets sail'' and soon is ``Shhhhhh/ Asleep.'' Sis's black-and-white drawings are remarkable for their clever amplification of the text. Nan's ordinary bedroom is gradually transformed into a dream landscape of trees filled with images of time and doorways that lead to the soothing ocean of sleep. Ages 4-8. (July)