Catch You Later! Thank You and Good Night by Patrick McDonnell

THE SUN SET, THE MOON ROSE, AND MAGGIE HELPED CLEMENT BUTTON HIS FAVORITE PAJAMAS, THE ONES WITH THE BLUE AND WHITE STRIPES.

Maggie is the hostess with the mostest for her Pajama Party! Clement the bunny is buttoned up, and Jean the little elephant, and Alan Alexander the bear are in their nighties, too!

But there's still time for fun--a bit of bouncing on the bed is the first order of business! WHEE! A. A. jumps so hard his pants fall down, to a chorus of giggles.

Not a bit embarrassed, he gets busy showing the sleepover friends the Chicken Dance. Clement wins the funny-face contest whiskers down, and they all join in a game of hide-and-seek. Is it bedtime yet?

"NO!"

But hostess Maggie wisely decides to slow things down a bit before they get out of hand. She leads them in some quiet yoga moves and then brings out the bedtime snacks to approval all around.

"NOM! NOM!"

With a bit of wishing upon their favorite star, at last they all settle down for the grand finale. It's time for bedtime stories. Maggie begins with "Once upon a .... "

"THAT'S A GOOD ONE....!" SHOUTS ALAN ALEXANDER.

And it is, in best-selling author-illustrator Patrick McDonnell's latest, Thank You and Good Night (Little, Brown and Company, 2015), which leads Maggie and her little friends through the partying and into the main attraction for all bedtime tales for tykes, the final lights out and a good good night. McConnell's illustrations are as charming as ever, with each of his toy animals given individual personalities with great good humor as Maggie sees them off to good sleep. Bedtime story veterans may recognize McConnell's sly wink in his choice of names for Maggie's friends taken from authors or illustrators of classic children's stories--Clement Hurd, illustrator of Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny, Jean De Brunhoff, author of The Story of Babar: The Little Elephant, and Alan Alexander (A. A.) Milne, author of The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh. But those are stories for another night.