The Good-Night Blessing Book

Much in the same vein as her recent An Alphabet of Angels, Willard's latest combines verse with photographs of carefully composed tableaux. As before, angels take center stage, this time to honor the sacred in the everyday. The verse flows in strong currents (""Bless new-washed clothes, the Milky Way,/ and those we love who do not stay/ but journey out, so fast, so far/ they break bread with the evening star""). Accompanying images are sometimes arresting and often humorous (for the ""new-washed clothes,"" an angel irons a pair of freshly laundered wings; for the ""Milky Way,"" another hovers before the fridge, contemplating the dairy goods). Although there is much here for children to appreciate, especially the angel dolls, images and figurines shown cleverly tucked in cabbages, ferrying teacups, trumpeting the dawn, and so on, the level of visual and linguistic sophistication makes the book better suited to adult angel aficionados. All ages. (Sept.)