Anchored by Miles's (Louie and Dan Are Friends) luminous, full-spread pictures, this tale, based on a lullaby that folksinger Paxton (Engelbert the Elephant) wrote for his daughter, makes a smooth transition to the page. Words and pictures create a quirky, dreamlike aura as Jennifer, first viewed asleep in her bed, follows her runaway stuffed rabbit outdoors, "Along with a turtle and a kangaroo,/ And seventeen monkeys from the city zoo." As unpredictable and spontaneous as the best of reveries, Paxton's narrative has a fluctuating rhyme and rhythm as it follows Jennifer and her animal companions to the ocean: "They called it the sea/ Of the very best dreams,/ And they all built a castle/ Of the best moonbeams/ And Milky Way streams." En route home, the girl and her pals count the stars in the sky ("and the final score/ Was a trillion and four") before the child once again curls up in her bed. A breezy, moonlit bedtime romp. All ages. (May)
