The Night Tent
by Landis Blair; illus. by the author
Preschool    Ferguson/Holiday    40 pp.
4/23    9780823450985    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780823455164    $11.99

Blair offers viewers a fantastical nighttime adventure. Because “Watson wasn’t sleepy,” he worries about what might be hiding under the bed or in his closet. Suddenly, a beam of light appears from beneath his covers, and when he crawls underneath he finds himself in a tent filled with stars. The stars illuminate a path, which Watson follows into a forest. “And since Watson wasn’t sleepy,” he joins a band of strange creatures (after being reassured that they wouldn’t harm “someone brought to them by the stars”) traveling along the path. Small inset images of the boy slowly dozing off belie the refrain that compels each page-turn (“And since Watson wasn’t sleepy”) until the “very, very sleepy” conclusion. Digitally colored pen-and-ink illustrations in subdued nighttime hues follow all the narrative twists and turns; the crosshatched illustrations of imaginative creature-filled escapades recall classic Sendak. Equal parts magical and soothing, the story could serve as a wonder-filled read-aloud or a calming bedtime tale.

From the March/April 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.