Baby Bedtime

by Mem Fox, Emma Quay (Illustrator)

Overview

Join these adorable elephants for a lyrical good night routine in this tender bedtime tale from the bestselling author of Time for Bed and Hello Baby!

After all the kissing, and the hugging, and the rocking, and the snuggling, there at last comes a time for—sleeping.

From beloved, bestselling picture book author Mem Fox, this cozy, dreamy bedtime book is a soothing lullaby that’s just right for lulling little ones to sleep.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481420983
Publisher:	Beach Lane Books
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	AD410L (what's this?)
File size:	43 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Mem Fox is an educator and international literacy expert, and her many acclaimed picture books for young children include Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug!; Hello Baby!; Baby Bedtime; I’m an Immigrant Too; the bestselling modern classics Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and Time for Bed; and, for adults, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever. She lives in Adelaide, Australia. Visit her at MemFox.com.

Emma Quay is a celebrated illustrator who has known she wanted to be an artist for as long as she can remember. Her picture books include the award-winning Bear and Chook series by Lisa Shanahan and her own delightfully irreverent Rudie Nudie. She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Sydney, Australia. Visit her at EmmaQuay.com.

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2014
PreS—In this soothing bedtime ode, an elephant in a bathrobe snuggles and carries her baby up to bed. Gentle hugs and kisses are accompanied by nose nibbles, toe gobbles, cradling, whispers, book reading, hair stroking, and yawns as bedtime draws near. In this beautifully designed book, a line of text is paired with an image rendered in muted pencils, acrylic paint, and Photoshop. Each illustration abounds in patterns and textures created from items such as doilies, handkerchiefs, lace, baskets, and belts. The elephants have an unfocused, sketchy look that pairs perfectly with twilight and dreams around the corner. This gentle lullaby in book form is perfect for sleepy toddlers and parents who will want to mimic the actions in the book.—Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI

School Library Journal

05/26/2014
Here’s a wonderful little lesson in the subjunctive from master teacher Fox (Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes). As a purple mother elephant gets her lavender baby ready for bed, she enumerates all the things she “could” do: “I could eat your little ears./ I could nibble on your nose./ I could munch your tiny fingers./ I could gobble up your toes.” Readers will instantly know that Mom has actually done—or is doing—all these things and more, but her savvy grammatical construction enables the mother elephant to assure her baby that he’s adorable while acknowledging the higher power of discipline and routine: “There comes a time for sleeping and our sleepy time is now.” Quay’s (Goodnight, Me) mixed-media pictures establish a mood of reverie, and her characters have blissful, loving expressions that keep the cooing text from turning soggy; sharp eyes will notice that she incorporates actual items of cozy domesticity, like doilies and handkerchiefs, into the pictures. After a few pages of soft-crayoned textures, pastel hues, and arm’s-length framing, a visual sameness sets in, though readers should find it soporific. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

An elephant parent rhapsodizes about its baby in a lyrical, rhyming story that also serves as bedtime prep: “I could stroke your silky hair. I could sit you on my knee./ I could sing you all the songs that my mother sang to me.”...The rhythmic text is both lovely and lulling. Quay’s illustrations, in subdued pastels, are a combination of pencil, acrylic paint, and digital elements, including patterns and textures of lace, knitting, cloth, and basketry. The darker, smudgy outlines of the lavender-gray elephant parent and child give them a gentle solidity and the figures themselves are appealingly rounded and toylike; their sweet expressions and cozy physical interactions nicely complement the slightly patterned, strongly hued backdrops. This would make a mellow closing title for a nighttime story hour or a pleasantly soporific bedtime read for families.

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"This soothing picture book—sure to become a nighttime ritual—upholds Mem Fox's (Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes) proven track record as a master of rhymes for early childhood...Emma Quay (the Bear and Chook series) introduces collage elements that add texture to the wallpaper, chairs, books on the shelves and toys in the toy box...Although Fox's narrator is an adult, the rhymes are completely child-centered, and inspire cuddling, stories and settling in to sleep...Fox's simple rhyme and Quay's soft pencil outlines and twilight palette attest to a complex understanding of what children at this age need in order to settle down: reassurance that their loved ones are near, consistency and cuddling...This new Mem Fox picture book is sure to become a nighttime favorite."

Shelf Awareness

2014-05-19
A beautifully rendered, anthropomorphic elephant tenderly (sort of) puts a pachyderm child to bed.The first four sets of pages feature large, bold, purple words on the verso and charmingly smudgy pastel-and-collage artwork on the recto. The initial phrase, "I could eat your little ears," is set opposite a watercolor adult elephant wearing a patterned bathrobe and affectionately embracing a baby elephant. The background is a tastefully decorated room, including a lacy chair holding a thumbed-through (or perhaps trunked-through) book. Established, the pattern follows with this banal-at-best and alarming-at-worst text: "I could nibble on your nose. / I could munch your tiny fingers. / I could gobble up your toes." The pastel purple and gold artwork mesmerizes, as the adult elephant tenderly hoists the baby and proceeds to carry it upstairs toward the bedroom. The text then mentions numerous other possible, now-gentle actions by the adult elephant, as in "I could sing you all the songs that my mother sang to me." Eventually, the rhyming text reaches the expected conclusion, with the adult elephant gently kissing the babe, laid in a bassinet, to sleep. Though it is eminently clear that this child is not about to become supper, the cannibalistic opening quatrain followed by a gushingly affectionate outpouring makes for a book that only a certain type of grandparent could read aloud to a very young grandchild.Quay's striking illustrations cannot rescue this one. (Picture book. 1-3)

Kirkus Reviews