Close Your Eyes

January 1, 2021

Baby-Toddler-An omniscient narrator offers soothing instructions on page after page of baby animals, ushering them toward sleep. It opens with "It's bedtime, baby," but it's clear from the yawning kitten surrounded by toys that there is still some time for play left. "I bet you can't wait to close your eyes," continues the narration. Then the discovery: to the baby koala on the page climbing a vine, and to readers, "Oh! You are WIDE awake!" In a piece of reverse psychology, the narrator admonishes readers not to look at the sleepy puppies, and to ignore anything soft, snuggly, or sleepy. "We won't even peek at this drowsy lamb." That's when onlookers find out that an adult owl is the narrator, counseling a young one in this catalog of cute. This book has in its favor truly adorable stars, drawn with photorealistic textures against soft night skies, with eyes that shine with wakefulness. VERDICT A perfect bedtime work, this has sly humor for knowing toddlers, and an ending that guarantees the proper outcome for pre-nap story hours.-Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2021
What to do when even the usual cure for insomnia--views of small, fuzzy animals drowsing off--doesn't work. It's a new suite of impossibly fuzzy, cute, photorealistic baby animals of the sort that continue to render readers of Houran and Hanson's Next to You: A Book of Adorableness (2016) helpless. A tableau of yawning, cozy goat kids with peepers shuttered or at half-mast accompanies the suggestive line: "I bet you can't wait to / close... / your..."--but the book immediately upsets expectations with the page turn, offering a contrasting view of a tiny tarsier with huge, bright eyes and the surprised observation: "Oh! / You are WIDE awake." How about reverse psychology then? "Let's stay up!" Just try to ignore the "baby ape with the blankie," the snoozing little fox, and, if at all possible, the bunny and the guinea pig snuggled together. "Come on! / That's not even FAIR!" the unseen narrator protests indignantly. But the toughest challenge is saved for the end: "PUPPIES. / Argh!" There's only one way to keep from seeing them. Houran and Hanson once again manage a delicate balancing act, both poking fun at the soft-focus cutesy-animal books that crowd shelves and at the same time unapologetically bathing readers in their gauzy glow. A truly compelling ticket to slumberland for even the most wakeful nappy-clad night owl. (Picture book. 1-3)

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