Good Night, Planet

On a fall afternoon, a girl plays with her stuffed animal, a fawn named Planet. He looks like an ordinary toy, but he leads a double life. After the girl says good night to him and falls asleep, Planet sits up. He’s thin and gangly, and he gives the girl a kiss and slides out of bed. He distracts Elliot, the family spaniel, from using him as a chew toy with a cookie. Then a mouse appears with a better offer: “Want to see the biggest cookie ever?” (It’s the full moon.) The mouse tries to get Planet to grab the moon from a tall branch, but the plan fails, and the animals trail home for cookies of the chocolate chip variety. The anticlimax offers a window into the logic of Liniers’s world, where toys can live and speak but the laws of physics still apply. The writing is limited to a few exchanges of dialogue, the panel sequences are alternately poignant and funny, and there’s quiet wisdom, too, as Planet tells the mouse, “Every animal, big or small, is a whole universe.” Ages 4–8. (Sept.)