Good Night, Sleep Tight

No wonder Skinny Doug is Bonnie and Ben's favorite sitter -- he's a fount of traditional rhymes that elicit cries of "Will you say it again?" Instead, each time, the lanky teenager promises, "Some other time," and comes up with a new one ("I'll tell you another / I heard from my mother"). Meanwhile, in Horacek's crisply outlined illustrations, the kids hop out of bed and take part in succinctly rendered visualizations of the rhymes (it's Doug who knocks on the door of the old man who "couldn't get up in the morning" and drives his charges to "this little Piggy's" market). Soon Bonnie and Ben are on the floor amid toys that also recall the rhymes, and climbing on Doug ("This is the way / the ladies ride") until he picks them up ("Star light, star bright…") and tucks them contentedly into bed: "It's time for sleep now, okay? So…Good night, sleep tight!" And the peerless sitter sleeps, too, drowsing, over his book, in an armchair. It's a clever way to introduce six old favorite rhymes -- and to model how to have a satisfying romp with small charges and then settle them down. Horacek's illustrations are just right -- as breezy and bouncy as the text and alive with bright, simply applied color. This could be a bedtime favorite, with kids chanting right along. joanna rudge long