Night Wishes

by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Editor), Jen Corace (Illustrator)

Overview

How would a clock, nightlight, or teddy bear say good night? In this enchanting poetry collection, Lee Bennett Hopkins and thirteen other poets imagine the wishes whispering through a young girl’s bedroom as she falls asleep. The bookshelf’s stories curl through her head; the pillow transforms into a hot air balloon; the rocking horse waits expectantly for tomorrow’s adventures. Stunning gouache illustrations by Jen Corace offer new details to discover with every reading. 

Perfect for bedtime reading and re-reading, Night Wishes will transport young readers into a wonderful, whimsical world of dreams. 

Includes poems by…

• Rebecca Kai Dotlich
• Matt Forrest Esenwine
• Jude Mandell
• Prince Redcloud
• Alice Schertle
• Joyce Sidman
• Eileen Spinelli
• Irene Latham
• Lee Bennett Hopkins
• Nikki Grimes
• Deborah Ruddell
• Darren Sardelli
• Renee LaTulippe

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802854964
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,117,817
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	580L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Lee Bennett Hopkins (1938–2019) was an acclaimed children's poet and anthologist. His books include I Remember (Lee & Low), America at War (Simon & Schuster), Manger, and Night Wishes (both Eerdmans). In 2011, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Lee as the world's most prolific anthologist of poetry for children-with over 100 titles to his name. He also founded the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the ILA/Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award to recognize excellent writing for children. Until his death in 2019, Lee lived in Cape Coral, Florida, where he wrote many poems about animals-including Duke, his old cocker spaniel. Visit his website at leebennetthopkins.com.

Editorial Reviews

11/02/2020

Featuring 14 persona poems, this anthology features 10 poets anthropomorphizing items that can be found in the bedroom—“Cat” by Eileen Spinelli, “Teddy Bear” by volume editor Hopkins, and “Night-light” by Renée M. LaTulippe—and delivering goodnight wishes from its perspective. Three more poets—Nikki Grimes, Deborah Ruddell, and Darren Sardelli—offer lines from “Angel,” “Stars,” and “Moon,” respectively. While the poems vary in rhyme scheme, they share a gentle, whimsical tone (“I’ll dream of sunlit fisheries/ with daring things to do./ You’ll dream of starry wisheries/ where sweetest dreams come true,” reads Spinelli’s “Cat”). Corace’s soft illustrations feature a brown-skinned child with a mass of dark hair amid cheerily colored dreamscapes: in one scene, a cat is a galaxy swimming along giant green fish, while the child is garbed in astronaut attire. An imaginative anthology sure to send readers straight to sweet dreams. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-07-14
Thirteen poets contribute to a collection that buoys sleepy readers into dreamland.

Hopkins organizes the thematic anthology of 14 short poems (Rebecca Kai Dotlich contributes two), each told from the perspective of something in a child’s room. Accompanying double-page spreads expand each poem. The illustrations start with imaginative scenes starring a child of color and gently shift back to reality as day breaks and the child wakes up. The first two poems, “Bed” and “Pillow,” urge action, with phrases like “Climb in, child. / Climb in” and “Eyes closed, set sail!” Next “Blanket” wraps the child in love as they drift off. “Cat” and “Dog” each elicit a sense of wonder as the titular animals pose curious questions. Remaining poems such as “Rocking Horse” and “Stars” convey the push (“Hurry up, sun! / Hurry up, dawn!”) and pull (“No need to hurry— / we listen all night”) of the wait until morning. “Bed Again,” the final poem, encourages the child to “Step out and into day. / Get dressed, be on your way.” The consistent tone combining first-person narration with direct address unifies the disparate voices. Though each poem’s subject and title connect to something specific, Corace’s stylized illustrations include recurring characters and other thoughtful details for readers to discover. The jewel tones offer a soothing, subdued nighttime backdrop, as does the flat perspective. Diamond-patterned endpapers repeat the cover’s visual motif of dandelion seeds turned to stars.

A gentle, comforting ticket to beddy-bye—and good dreams. (Picture book/poetry. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews