Bedtime with Dad: Panda Whispers by Mary Beth Owen

Underneath a shooting star,
Llamas hum near mountains steep,
Dreaming of the things they'll find
Waiting at the highest peak.
Llama whispers, "Top of the world!"

In a cozy bedroom, where a dozen stuffed animals listen from the quilted bed, a father reads a bedtime story to his daughter, while through the windows the sun lowers on an ocean vista. In the girl's lap we see this book, Panda Whispers, open to a page where a panda and baby settle down to nighttime dreams.

Panda cuddles with her cub,
Pointing to the tallest tree.
She gives his back a gentle rub.
Panda whispers, "Dream of climbing!"

Mary Beth Owens' lyric, dreaming cadence of rhymes pictures animal parents with their young, settling down to sleep, while the mother or father softly whispers a suggestion for sweet dreams.

Resting in the rolling ocean,
Sleepy dolphins close their eyes.
High above a golden moon
Is tossed into the starlit sky.
Dolphin whispers, "Leap up high."

Against deep blue backgrounds, cheetah, alligator, and penguin parents, to name a few, wish for dreams that match their young's desires. Swan whispers to the cygnets of tasty lily roots awaiting, with the words "Bottoms up!" and in their meadow den Red Fox murmurs, "You'll find crickets" to his kits. Owen pictures each animal and baby realistically on one side of the double-page spread, while soft, dreamy illustrations portray the dreams of the young on the other. "Fast as lightning!" whispers Cheetah, as the kittens race through their dreams, and Lemur softly speaks of leaping through the highest branches, with a loving "Hold on tight!"

The final pages return to Dad and his little girl, beyond them the setting sun lighting up the sails of boats on the darkening sea, and as her plush animals sprawl asleep on her bed and her eyes droop, he whispers his own wish for her:

In the bedroom child and father
Hear the ocean in the night.
"Dream you'll sail to far-off places,
Then sail back by morning's light.

Father whispers, "I'll be waiting here. . . . Good night."

A fitting and timely tribute to fathers and an inviting summons to sweet sleep, Owen's Panda Whispers, captures a memorable bedtime moment for the young.