(2) PS In this companion to Hello, Moon (rev. 7/21), Downing records the activities of a group of woodland animals, including rabbits, bears, butterflies, and a hawk, as they engage in their daytime routines. The book sets a gentle tone: "Hello, sun! / Goodbye, night. / Sunrise chill, pale dawn light." Similar quatrains ("Morning shines, / ferns unfurl. / Acorns crack. / Hungry squirrel") detail the action, which includes frolicking, nest building, and even napping. A hawk flies overhead ("Feathers flash / all around"), interrupting the bucolic scenes, but the rabbits: "Hide away, / safe and sound." Although yellow predominates the palette of the watercolors and liquid acrylics, Downing employs soft blues and greens in the flora and fauna to create a pastoral tableau that beautifully complements the rhythmic text.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(1) K-3 While a child gets ready for bed, a father gets ready for work--as do other night-shift workers in the city. Readers follow the dad (a nurse) and eight others: a taxi driver, a firefighter, an emergency dispatcher, a janitor, a security guard, a hotel manager, an on-location film tech, and a baker. Spreads with multiple panels or apartment windows highlight people at home and at work; in busier scenes the colorfully depicted main characters easily stand out. Nifty details are everywhere, and crisscrossing narratives add tons of fun. Wisely, the quiet text lets the pictures tell the stories, allowing viewers to discover the connections on their own: the hotel manager welcomes a guest whose dog gets loose and runs down the street to the bakery, where firefighters (alerted by the dispatcher) have just put out a fire; an expecting couple hails the taxi driver, and later the nurse tends to new mother and baby, while outside their hospital window the baker holds the lost dog and hails the cab driver, who takes the pup back to its owner, an actor who's on a set with the film tech. Phew! Fittingly, the work-night wraps up with a scene outside the cozy bakery, where each worker, before heading home, can be spotted inside or out. The characters' diversity nicely reflects the big-city setting: the nurse is a Black man, the firefighter is a woman, the dispatcher uses a wheelchair, and the hotel manager wears a hijab.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) PS In this bedtime book Downing invites listeners to revel in the night with soft illustrations depicting four nocturnal animals (a fox, owl, mouse, and raccoon) and a complementary series of soothing quatrains describing their routines. A predominance of long vowels ("Cloudy moon, / rustling leaves. / Branches bow, / cool night breeze") creates a gentle narrative that shows the animals going about their usual nighttime activities of finding food ("Ripe, red fruit, / savory seeds. / Midnight feast, / tender leaves") and shelter ("Hurry home. / Almost there. / Warm and dry, / cozy lair"). Downing paces the reading through spacing on the page, most often with the quatrains split across the full-bleed, double-page spreads. Whenever the last two lines of a quatrain are composed solely of verbs ("scurry, pounce, flutter, glide"), she abandons that structure and scatters the verbs across the page, creating a quasi-labeling of the corresponding art, prompting a mild staccato-like reading that emphasizes the action. Various shades of blue and green appear throughout the watercolors and liquid acrylics as the night shadows create a muted, velvety palette.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(3) PS Upset that Mama has taken his baseball away ("No playing ball in the house"), Felix puts a ban on hugs until Saturday--that is, until he realizes Saturday is a whole week away. The text incorporates concepts of the passage of time and days of the week, reinforced by some wordless pages and spreads. Expressive green-hued watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations feature amiable dragon characters.

Reviewer: Rebecca Reed Whidden

(4) PS This reassuring book features several baby animals, including a bunny, skunk, and chipmunk, who ask in turn, "Where is my mommy?"; the answers on pages that follow include "She's washing my face" and "She's bringing me food." The book ends after a toddler asks the same question during a game of peekaboo with his mother. Soft illustrations in pastel hues enrich the slight premise.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty