The Night Is Singing

Reviews
School Library Journal
This perfect bedtime read captures the sounds of a creaky old house in the country as well as the noises outside. Vivid images evoke the contrast between the stormy fall night and the snug coziness indoors: “Hear the hissing,/Soft as kissing,/From the radiator grate./Hear the chiming/ Tell-the-timing/Of the hall clock striking eight.” Attractive, full-page folk-art illustrations that combine collage and oil paint on gessoed watercolor paper lend an old-fashioned charm to the rural scene and the comfort and security within.

Booklist
This atmospheric bedtime book offers a quiet celebration of nighttime sounds. At dusk in a picturesque country village, a little girl preparing for bed identifies after-dark creaks, rustles, and rumbles as “lullabies” sung by the night. Lilting verse in a second-person voice (“Up you go / Tippy-toe”) invites children inside cozy domestic scenes, as the rocking-chair rhythms and soothing words demystify scary unknowns: “Hear the hissing / Soft as kissing, / From the radiator grate. . . . The house is singing lullabies.” The text lacks a true story line, but it conveys a vivid sense of cocooning safety, unpunctured even in the wake of a “crashing” thunderstorm, and Brooker’s distinctive collage-and-paint illustrations effectively juxtapose the bright farmhouse interiors with the increasingly dramatic outdoor scenes. Some of the verse imagery, such as one image involving a pet cat “shadowboxing with your nose,” may not speak to children, but kids who harbor bedtime anxieties will gain courage from the notion of a night filled with friendly, serenading presences.

Kirkus
Ready for bed with her favorite bunny tucked under her arm, a little girl climbs the stairs to her room while the sounds of the night begin to sing their lullabies. But each new sound of the hissing radiator, the chiming clock, the squalling geese, her romping tabby cat, the blowing wind, the thunder and rain, makes the little girl increasingly awake and anxious until the “tip-tap beat” of her “mama's feet” brings mother’s singing to her room. The patterned rhyming text—“Now the moon beams down upon you,/ And the stars ignite the skies./ ’Til you rise,/ ’Til you rise, / The night will sing you lullabies”—moves the child from acquiescence, to play, to fear, to soothing comfort and finally to sleep. Fabric/paper collage on oil paintings in multiple colors of blues and dark purples provide a lot of detail and texture to the nocturnal scenes featuring an otherwise standard theme. Gratifying and readable night after night.

Synopsis

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