cover image Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems

Switching on the Moon: A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems

Collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters, illus. by G. Brian Karas, Candlewick, $21.99 (96p) ISBN 978-0-7636-4249-5

Following up on Here's a Little Poem, Yolen and Peters's 60-poem anthology reveals the many faces of nighttime through the words of these collaborators as well as poets that include Tennyson, Plath, Lee Bennett Hopkins, and Mary Ann Hoberman. Some verses are comical (Colin West's "Going to Bed": "Go to bed early—/ Your hair grows curly./ Go to bed late—/ Your hair grows straight"), some are gentle (Polly Peters's "Puff": "All is safe. Now drift away/ On velvet dreams, from night to day"), and others are full of whimsy. With Karas's mixed-media illustrations creating a chalky, dreamlike atmosphere, this book is made for bedtime. Up to age 5. (Sept.)