No "Little Night Music!" Blanche Hates The Night by Sibylle Delacroix

NIGHT ALWAYS FALLS. But...

BLANCHE DOES NOT LOVE THE NIGHT

ACTUALLY, BLANCHE HATES THE NIGHT!

Blanche definitely does not feel the magic of the night.

Some of us are born night owls, those to whom somnolence comes only grudgingly. Blanche is one of those. Even her name (which means "white") is in direct opposition to the dark side of the diurnal cycle.

Blanche has a cozy room of her own. Her little bed is spread with a comfy polka dot coverlet. He kitten curls up at her feet, and she has her plush toy on her lap. But her bedtime lovey is an owl, with big, round, wide-open eyes, just like Blanche's own.

Blanche does what she can. She beats her snare drum to wake the sun and sings loudly. The moon persists at hanging out at her window, but she does manage to wake the cat ... and her parents!

"STOP THAT RACKET!"

Blanche does it all to keep awake. She sings. She takes off her pajama top, hangs it up on the crescent moon, and does some gymnastics. Despite parental scolding, she plays trampoline on her bed.

But at last the night has its way. Her toy owlet's eyes droop, and so do her own.

Night must fall, in Sibylle Delacroix's charming little sleep-resister's story, Blanche Hates the Night (Owlkids Books, 2016), as Blanche finally goes happily into that good night. Delacroix's simple comic line drawings are set against pages done in a midnight hue of blue, with occasional brown backgrounds when Mom or Dad flip on the hall light to lay down the law to their insomniac daughter. Kids will love to trace the signs of Blanche's progressive surrender to sleep as the pages turn, and it's all in gentle good fun, making this one a bedtime read with a subtle message that sleep is inevitable, if regrettable, for some tots who find it hard to switch off more than their bedside lamps. "Lots of visual oomph and an irresistibly confident heroine front and center," says Publishers Weekly.

Sleepover Shuteye Song: Pete The Cat and the Bedtime Blues by Kimberly and James Dean

It's a cowabunga day on their surfboards for Pete the Cat and his buddies, but as the sun sinks over the breakers, they are having too much fun to call it a day. To keep their groove goin', they decide to have a far-out sleepover party at Pete's house.

But after scarfing up the pizza and partying hearty, Pete's eyelids are even more droopy than usual. He climbs into his stripey PJs and tells his friends it's time to catch some zzzzzs.

"GOODNIGHT, GUS.

GOODNIGHT, GATOR.

GOODNIGHT, TOAD."

But it seems that Pete is the only one in a shuteye groove.

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

"WHO DID THAT?" SAID PETE.

"IT WAS ME!" SAID GRUMPY TOAD.

"I DON'T WANT TO GO TO BED.

I WANT TO CLAP INSTEAD."

The rest of his guests are also in the mood to pull an all-nighter. Gus the Platypus wants to drum and jam the night away, and Gator has the midnight munchies. But Pete is not in the mood for food!

What's a host to do? Pete has an idea. Perhaps an absorbing bedtime story will divert his guests. He pulls out a book, Pete the Cat and the Ten Little Monsters, and his pals pop into their sleeping bags to listen. Now, if only Pete can stay awake long enough to finish the book!

Kimberly and James Dean's brand-new Pete title, Pete the Cat and the Bedtime Blues (Harper, 2015) has their popular cool cat dealing with a ticklish social problem, getting his rowdy buddies to cool it so he can get his beauty sleep. A particularly eye-pleasing palette of cool nighttime blues, right down to Pete's blue sleepytime wear, gives this story plenty of eye appeal, a new Pete tale that is indeed the cat's pajamas!

Pair this one with the irresistible MerryMakers Pete the Cat Bedtime Blues Plush Doll, 14.5", dressed for snoozing in his blue-striped PJs and perfect for a role as a Christmas Eve dreamland lovey pal.

Seriously Seeking Darkness! Turn Off That Light! by John Crossingham

Click!

...zzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZ--"Snork!"

"TURN OFF THAT LIGHT!"

A little sleeping hedgehog is awakened by someone suddenly flipping the switch of his bedroom light.

The light switch is clicked and off go the lights.

It's back to dreamland, until...

Click!

"Huh?! Wuzzak?!

WHO KEEPS DOING THAT!"

Little Hedgehog rubs his offended eyes. He must get a good look at the prankster who is turning his light on and off.

Click! He's feeling his way across the room when he encounters a body/ He'll show that interloper whose room this is! Wacks and zaps ensue.

With another Click! Hedgehog sees that he's just beaten the stuffing (literally) out of his toy rabbit!

"Bunny?"

Muffled in mounds of pink plush bunny stuffing, Hedgehog tries to take control of the confusion by plugging in his own version of a trouble light! There's got to be some reason for this midnight switch flipping! He's going to nip that flipper!

"What? I said what? I asked for a drink of water?"

There is a logical reason for this midnight melee'. And, as is the wont in these crazed days of interactive picture books, it's customary to blame it all on the reader.

Yes, YOU, dear reader! You're the one who keeps making the lights come on--BY TURNING THOSE PAGES! Crossingham's droll hedgehog denies all culpability. He couldn't have asked for a drink of water and then fallen sound asleep, could he?

"I DID? Soooo... glug, glug, glug!"

In John Crossingham's latest, big-eyed little Hedgehog, sporting quills that end in a Mohawk do, stars in a very unique little bedtime story. Set against illustrator Steve Wilson's dark, shiny pages with wavering shadows and cartoon-style speech balloons, our anti-hero hedgehog sorts out the problem grumpily, and with a page turn and a final CLICK, he's finally off to sleep. Or is he? The pages are all turned. What else could happen?

"I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM...."

There's always the closing endpaper in John Crossingham's Turn Off That Light! (OwlKids Books, 2015), a quirky interactive story with a role for young readers.   Hey!  Dear Reader...  Don't close that cover... YET!