cover image When Daddy Tucks Me In

When Daddy Tucks Me In

Sacha Cotter, illus. by Josh Morgan. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-72825-796-9

A large bunch of keys inspires outlandish bedtime stories in this fanciful first-person narrative that centers a brown-skinned father and child in a late-night moment. After the child narrator hears their father, who works late, arrive home after their bedtime, the youth prolongs a tuck-in session with questions about Daddy’s many differently shaped keys. In response, Daddy gamely describes a “lumpy, bumpy key” as fitting the ignition to a wild-looking vehicle called a “zippenburger,” and a “rusty” one as unlocking a padlock to the corral of a woolly mammoth. Each time, a distinctive sound effect comes into play: a cookie factory, for example, opens with a “wibbily wobbly wooble.” Morgan’s digital artwork, which incorporates found textures for a collaged effect, offers over-the-top scenes of Daddy’s adventuresome imagined work life, until a plain key for an unremarkable door yields a simple reveal: the child, racing to see their dad. Ages 4–8. (May)