Goodnight Sounds

Sounds soothe when it’s time to drift off in this sleep aid, a sensory-based picture book. “What sound helps you fall asleep?” an opening prompt probes as Miller’s text proposes a range of onomatopoeiaic place-based phrases. These include foghorns bellowing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, the hooting of an owl, the quaking of leaves, and the trickle of a mountain stream, among others. Jing Chan’s carefully lit digital nightscapes draw on dusty purples and blues throughout unlined renderings of the myriad dwellings and figures who play audience to the featured noises. Closing examples zero in on the domestic, highlighting “Grandma’s voice telling you a story” and “the purring of your cat/ curled up in a cozy ball.” The steady layering of echoic sounds succeeds in achieving a soporific effect. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 2–5. (Oct.)