01/04/2016
In a lullaby-like outing that celebrates interconnectedness, a boy slumbers at dusk, while the breeze “carries the song/ of crickets” into his bedroom. Outside his window, animals prepare for night in a hilly meadowland overlooking the bay. Hunter (Loon Baby) lyrically links each animal to another: “The fox sniffs for the/ scent of the rabbit,/ who hides in her hole in the field,/ listening to the hoo, hoo, hoo of a hunting owl/ carried on the ocean air.” Beneath the full-spread images, done in sweeping watercolor and textured with delicate ink lines, a thin border shows both the boy’s seaside home and a tropical fishing village, the softly luminescent landscapes separated by an ocean. As whales “rise up to breathe in/ air warmed by another land,” the village comes into full view, including another house overlooking tropical waters, where a girl sleeps “like you,/ to the song of crickets/ brought on the evening breeze.” A lovely, tranquil bedtime book that suggests the world need not seem so vast. Ages 4–7. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. (Mar.)
Kirkus Best of 2016 School Library Journal’s Fuse#8 Best of 2016 * "The sonorous text, laced with soothing onomatopoeic animal sounds, transports wee listeners from the bedroom of one sleeping child to that of another. Soporific illustrations in pen, ink, and watercolor realistically capture nature's creatures in the muted hues of dusk, while deft use of crosshatching suggests nightfall's atmospheric shadows." — Kirkus, STARRED Review * "The language is as lulling as an evening breeze, but it’s the illustrations that make this book truly extraordinary. Those who have experienced Hunter’s earlier titles...will be familiar with her gift for depicting the natural world. Here her watercolor and ink renderings of the landscape and the sea, the animals, and the purple-gold sunset clouds are an exquisite journey into the most restful part of the day." — School Library Journal, STARRED Review * "The fluid, precisely worded text works seamlessly with the artwork, which is intelligently conceived, gracefully composed, and beautifully carried out." — Booklist, STARRED Review "A lovely, tranquil bedtime book that suggests the world need not seem so vast." — Publishers Weekly —
★ 01/01/2016
PreS-Gr 1—In a yellow house, in a blue bedroom decorated with planets and stars, a boy sleeps. He cuddles a sea otter toy, and on the wall behind a windblown curtain is the painting of a South Pacific island, volcanic, the ocean parted by a whale's tail. The tranquil spread is underlined with a long, narrow panel depicting his house, the stretch of the sea, and then another house on an island just like the one in his painting. The sun hasn't set yet in this other place, where dolphins leap and yellow-green parakeets fly overhead. In subsequent spreads, sunset turns to night outside the boy's window. Inquisitive crickets are joined by puffing frogs, timid rabbits, a watchful fox, and a bay full of dozing otters. Meanwhile, the setting sun creeps along the lower panel as the main illustrations shift their focus to the deepening blue sky and sea of the islands, fishermen bringing in their boats, and a girl asleep under a fish-patterned blanket, a toy parakeet tucked in her arms. The language is as lulling as an evening breeze, but it's the illustrations that make this book truly extraordinary. Those who have experienced Hunter's earlier titles, including Possum's Harvest Moon (HMH, 1996), will be familiar with her gift for depicting the natural world. Here her watercolor and ink renderings of the landscape and the sea, the animals, and the purple-gold sunset clouds are an exquisite journey into the most restful part of the day. VERDICT An evocative work in which readers can look at the pictures and hear the wind, the whales, and the crickets singing.—Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY
★ 2015-12-22
Sleeping children on different sides of the ocean are linked by nature's sounds. The sun moves west, and an evening breeze "carries the song of crickets" to a sleeping child. Outside, cricket song merges with the "kreck" of frogs and the "poorwill!" of a bird listening for a fox's woodland footsteps. While the fox sniffs rabbit's field burrow, she listens to owl's "hoo" over the ocean, where "sea otters doze" in the bay and whales sing "deep in the sea." The same breeze draws fishermen to another shore. Here, parakeets "scrawk" in a palm tree growing in the yard of a girl sleeping while crickets sing outside the window. The sonorous text, laced with soothing onomatopoeic animal sounds, transports wee listeners from the bedroom of one sleeping child to that of another. Soporific illustrations in pen, ink, and watercolor realistically capture nature's creatures in the muted hues of dusk, while deft use of crosshatching suggests nightfall's atmospheric shadows. The double-page spreads progress from bedroom to yard to woods to fields to shore to ocean and finally to another shore and a different bedroom. A panoramic border at the foot of each spread holistically spans both coasts, transitioning from temperate to tropical worlds as each new page turn reveals minute visual changes reflecting the text. Sensitive bedtime winner guaranteed to enchant drowsy kids. (Picture book. 4-7)
