Bedtime Rhyme
'I loved it. The most beautiful thing Walt has done.'
-Maurice Sendak
'Wangerin’s flight of fancy is full of love, and that is what the listener cannot help but hear.'
-Jan Karon
'Any child who gets this read to them will feel safe and protected.'
-Janell Cannon, author and illustrator of Stellaluna
'In a series of rhymes, Wangerin (Probity Jones and the Fear Not Angel) dispels a child’s fear of the dark by teaching the lessons of God’s love and presence. As the rhymes begin, a mother responds to her son’s question: 'How much do I love you? / Lay down your head, / My gingerbread, / And listen: I’ll tell you.' She elaborates by telling him that if robbers should come into the room, 'I’d clobber those robbers / Until they slobbered / And all their teeth decayed.' If her son is threatened by monsters, 'I’d grab my reaper, / My vacuum sweeper, / And suck those monsters down!' After she reassures him that she will protect him against all things, the mother then tells her son, 'Here in your room / All night while you’re sleeping, / Kinder and wiser / And best for safekeeping / Is God.' Huang’s illustrations capture the wildness of the child’s imagination and provide just the right background for Wangerin’s humorous rhymes. Ages 5-8.'
-Publishers Weekly
