Joel's first children's book pairs the lyrics of a song he wrote for his daughter with British artist Gilbert's (A Dictionary of Fairies
) closely focused, textured colored pencil artwork introducing a father and his cherubic daughter. As the man tucks the child into bed, Joel's words offer reassurance: "I promised I would never leave you./ And you should always know wherever you may go,/ no matter where you are, I never will be far away." The sugary images take fanciful flight after the child closes her eyes: she and her father appear in a sailboat ("Remember all the songs you sang for me when we went sailing on an emerald bay") and, in another moonlit scene, the girl opens her arms to a swarm of butterflies ("Goodnight, my angel, now it's time to dream. And dream how wonderful your life will be"). In a confusing visual accompaniment to the line "Someday your child may cry, and if you sing this lullabye,..." the same girl snuggles with a woman (presumably her mother), yet the song lyric would seem to refer to the youngster's own future child. The book will appeal more to parent than child (a final illustration depicts the lass sleeping as her father's fingers stroke her cheek). Featuring a soft pastel palette, Gilbert's idealized images of the long-lashed heroine and luminous landscapes echo the unabashedly sentimental strains of Joel's song. The singer performs this soothing tune on a CD tucked into a plastic envelope on the inside back cover. All ages. (Oct.)
