It’s Time to Go to Sleep

In this sweetly soporific story, as a blond boy rides his scooter toward home, he bids good night to vehicles, animals, and the passing landscape: “Good night to the garden,/ Good night to the grass./ Good night to the water and the seeds./ Good night to the flowers./ Good night to the bees./ Good night to the birdies in the trees.” Barroux’s delicately scraggly lines and bright daubs of paint create inviting urban and rural environments, and the objects and animals the boy sees reappear as toys and artwork in his bedroom in the final scene, suggesting that his independent travels might have been of the imaginary variety. Simultaneously available: It’s Time to Take a Nap. Ages 1–3. (Aug.)