Sleep Well, Little Bear

With its tranquil pace and soft pencil drawings, this teddy bear tale makes a potent bedtime antidote for wound-up children. Originally written in German, Buchholz's story progresses a bit unevenly, but his delicate pointillism more than compensates. A wakeful teddy bear revisits his activities of the day just past, and ponders what he might do tomorrow. His mental wanderings take him to a river, a meadow, a neighbor's house and a circus, where ``in the evening quiet, the clown is playing a sleep song on his violin for the baby elephant.'' Inside the back cover is an envelope that contains a letter, labeled ``To the Finder of the Red Balloon,'' and a picture for the reader to color and put under his or her pillow to bring ``a beautiful dream'' (the salutation refers to a mysterious letter-carrying balloon in the text). In both its language and its art, this nighttime dreamscape offers images sweet and soothing. Ages 3-up. (Sept.)