Goodnight World

Debi Gliori

Bloomsbury Children’s, 2016

32pp., hbk.,  RRP $A22.99

9781408872734

Bedtime and time to say goodnight to the world.

Goodnight planet, goodnight world,

Peaceful clouds around Earth curled.

In a gentle, lullaby-like rhyme the little one is getting ready for bed and wishing everything a goodnight before sleep takes over.  The polar regions, the Northern Lights, the oceans and seas , cars, boats, planes, birds, bees and fish – everything that he knows is included in this final farewell for the day.  

Goodnight houses, nests and burrows.

Goodnight daylight, until tomorrow’s.

The text is captured in a soft palette of muted colours, softened even further by subtle tones and shadings and blurred lines and within each picture everything is settling down for the night, snuggled together and listening to a bedtime story.  Even the tiniest insect is reading or listening as the flowers and grasses curl around them.  In fact the whole theme is one of being curled up in the arms of something that loves and protects, and that night and darkness and sleep are a time of safety and security.

This would be the perfect inclusion as the final read for the bedtime reading routine, gently calming everyone and sending them off to dreamland comforted and comfortable, loving and loved.