A Child's Prayer

Titherington has chosen to illustrate this traditional bedtime prayer (``Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John / bless the bed I lie on . . . '') not with Biblical imagery but with pictures of a child quietly playing with his favorite toys as he says the prayer to himself before bed. Her lovely, luminous pastels are at once realistic and full of wonder, with a soothing quality that suits the incantatory rhythms of the prayer. However, the book's unstated but clearly central concept--the inescapable intertwining, in a child's mind, of prayer and the here and now--depends upon a connection that may be too abstract and sophisticated to resonate for children themselves. Ages 3-up. (Sept.)