cover image An After Bedtime Story

An After Bedtime Story

Shoham Smith, trans. from the Hebrew by Annette Appel, illus. by Einat Tsarfati. Abrams, $16.95 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4197-1873-1

Not only is Nina not asleep; she’s ready to join the party, emerging from her bedroom in her tiara, frilly skirt, and not much else, in time to greet her parents’ guests: “Give Aunt Ruth a kiss goodnight—/ then back to bed you go, all right?” Nina grabs an iced cupcake then, emboldened, clowns for the assembly and tries bathing her doll in the punch bowl (“Get down, young lady! That’s not how we act./ You’re going to bed this instant, and that’s a fact”). No one hears. Instead, the guests join the fun, crawling around on their hands and knees; walk-ons by Nina’s toddler brother and the family bulldog add more laughs. In contrast to the mayhem, there’s something classic, even elegant about Tsarfati’s spreads, which combine the poise of Greek urn paintings with the everyday chaos of life with kids. Though the translated verse can be clunky and some may object to Nina’s self-indulgent anarchy, Smith and Tsarfati tap into a rich seam of sleepless parent humor. Clearly, as this Israeli duo proves, limelight-hogging children are an international phenomenon. Ages 5–7. (May)