Originally published as "The Baby Goes to Boston," this poem written by the late Richards in the early 1900s will send toddlers happily off to slumber. Williams (Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck) takes an impressionistic approach in his watercolors as he pictures a youngster drifting off to sleep. Familiar images from the child's room break into the reverie as the child dreams of being a passenger aboard a toy train that flies above an enchanted landscape. To the accompaniment of Richards's locomotive rhythms, stuffed animals come alive and gleeful trees run over a field of giant colored pencils, "each chasing t'other one." As the "locomo" cheers its refrain, "Jiggle joggle, jiggle joggle, jiggle joggle jee!" the smokestack responds, "Loky moky poky stoky smoky choky chee!" The repetitive rhymes will have youngsters just beginning to play with language confidently chanting along. Williams's watercolors are stunners, densely colored yet shimmering with light, and effortlessly balance the reality of the toddler's bedroom with the fantasy of imaginative play. Ages 2-up. (Apr.)
