Little Donkey Close Your Eyes - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 1-This tender, musical, onomatopoetic poem addressed to a sleepy child smoothly and soothingly slides along as each baby creature is gently exhorted to stop its activities and close its eyes. Some are winningly mischievous: the donkey makes faces, the monkey throws coconuts, the piglet squeals. Others are quietly sweet: the lambs graze, the wild birds peep, and the kittens snuggle. In a superb format each verse, in large, handsome type, is set on a black framed square perfectly integrated into the accompanying illustration and printed in a harmonizing color. These frames emphasize the bold, clearly defined figures, also outlined in black, on a rich nighttime palette of blues, greens, browns, terracottas, and purples. Details of the backgrounds impinge upon the frames, softening and varying the overall effects and drawing all of the elements into a unified whole. The settings vary from lush jungles to dry mesas to corn-filled fields to piney woods, representing areas throughout the world. Suffused with peace, beauty, warmth, and reassurance, the book is a bedtime gem.
Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.