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PRESCHOOL
Fitzgerald, Louise

The Quickest Bedtime Story Ever!

32 pp. | Nosy Crow | April, 2024 | Trade ISBN 9798887770512 $17.99
(2) PS Illustrated by Kate Hindley. Hindley brings a Richard Scarry vibe to Fitzgerald's zany bedtime frolic. From the start, the direct-address narrator breaks the book's titular promise: the "quickest bedtime story EVER" is "only ten words. BUT before we begin, listen up." Listeners join a cast of pajama-clad animals in a series of interactive bedtime-stalling antics. They pledge to go to bed at the end of the book, while grownups promise to use their best reading voices. Everyone warms up (aided by silly, near-page-filling text), stretches (rotating the book to achieve a full vertical extension), tucks in their toys (from biggest to smallest, in colors and patterns, or "even try out [their] own ideas"), practices careful page-turning, and so on. Finally it's time for the story, which sums up this delightful romp: "Once upon a bed, / you laughed, / and played, / and read." Colorfully cluttered illustrations offer myriad details, inviting repeat readings, encouraged by the book's closing words: "(Until tomorrow!)." In the final pages, Hindley's bright, wakeful colors give way to sleepy shades of blue, glowing from decorative string lights, and everyone -- well, almost everyone -- is sound asleep.
Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

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