cover image The Things I Love About Bedtime

The Things I Love About Bedtime

Trace Moroney. Scholastic/Cartwheel, $8.99 (16p) ISBN 978-0-545-29016-6

This padded board book with cardboard pages aims directly at children who are reluctant to go to bed, introducing a bunny who loves bedtime. Throughout, Moroney emphasizes family rituals (“I snuggle into bed with my teddy-bunny and Dad reads me a story”) and positive thinking. Nestled under a patchwork quilt, the bunny thinks about the things that he’d “like to dream about,” as Moroney’s cozy images take a whimsical turn, showing the bunny riding on the back of a bumblebee on a trip to the moon, as well as sailing a pirate ship “on a sea of raspberry jelly” that’s crowded with goldfish. Encouraging and reassuring, this might persuade some readers to look to bedtime with anticipation instead of trepidation. Up to age 3. (Jan.)