Winch's (The Old Woman Who Loved to Read) sumptuous craftsmanship makes this survey of animal resting places stand out—although a "surprise" Nativity-themed ending feels tacked on. Winch takes painstakingly detailed oil portraits of animals (his brush strokes are so delicate that individual feathers can be discerned) and photographs them amid layered, collaged settings. Sometimes the results are highly stylized, as in a spread of a rabbit peaking out from snowdrifts, which resembles a puppet stage with its theatrical backdrop and three-dimensional shadowplay. At other times, Winch opts for realism: a wren with an elegantly elongated beak perches on a birch-like branch and nestles among lifelike leaves (one of which is decorated with a real bug). Hooper's (At the Corner of the Eye) rhymes are simple but evocative: the chipmunk burrows "underneath the roots and loam,/ I follow many hallways home." A few pages into the book, however, it becomes clear that the animals are not bedding down for the night after all—rather, they're making their way to what is clearly the Nativity (although it is never explicitly stated). The final scene of animals keeping watch at the manger has a beatific grace, but the disconnect between the two acts—sleeping and making a pilgrimage—throws the book off kilter. Ages 2-6. (Sept.)
