While the World Is Sleeping

PreS-Gr 1—A pajama-clad girl accepts a great snowy owl's invitation to explore the evening landscape in this bedtime story (Orchard Books, 2010) by Pamela Duncan Edwards. Over the hills and valleys they fly. Soft night music, soothing as a lullaby, evokes the magic of the owl's flight. As deer pause for a drink, silver fish swim in a river flowing to the sea. A bright-eyed fox prowls by the chicken house until a guard dog barks. A mother mouse keeps watch over her children so no slithering snake can harm them. Beavers work on their dam, and a porcupine rattles his quills in warning. Rita Pardue weaves a spell as she reads this poem, with stanzas composed of three rhymed lines followed by "while the world is sleeping." Daniel Kirk's full-color gouache paintings are presented iconographically with moonlight adding a touch of fantasy to images so realistic that every hair, feather, and leaf seems distinct. When the girl has seen what the owl sees, he takes her back to her room as the sun rises. The last picture shows her sleeping, a snowy owl toy tucked in bed with her. Particularly fine insights are given in a conversation with the author and the illustrator. Edwards invites youngsters to think not only about nocturnal animals but also about those who are seen in the daytime. Kirk tells of the creation of a snowy owl big enough to carry a little girl on his back. Richly satisfying.—Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN