Goodnight, Veggies

This rhythmic journey through a rooftop vegetable garden settling down to sleep names the varied inhabitants of a well-stocked plot—“tossing, turning veggies/[that] need to get some rest.” A smiling pink worm wearing a jaunty newsboy cap and a single tube sock and shoe acts as a friendly guide through each spread, hopping and slinking from a pea-pod tent through raised beds. Signature illustrations by OHora (Who Wet My Pants?) simply anthropomorphize the vegetables described in the text by Murray (Unicorn Day), which occasionally plays on vegetables’ characteristics: the worm zooms through dirt while smiling potatoes close their eyes and corn “covers up its ears.” As darkness descends, “every veggie’s snoozing,/ beneath the moon so bright,/ for nothing’s more exhausting/ than growing day and night.” The produce-list narrative may be light, but the snuggled-in vegetables and sweet, lilting text offer an effectively snoozy bedtime rhyme. Ages 4–7. Author’s agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House. Illustrator’s agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary Agency. [em](Mar.) [/em]