As Night Falls: Creatures That Go Wild After Dark
by Donna Jo Napoli; illus. by Felicita Sala
Preschool, Primary     Random House Studio/Random    40 pp.
3/23    9780593374290    $18.99
Library ed.  9780593374306    $21.99
e-book ed.  9780593374313    $10.99

With a going-to-bed frame, this picture book in rhyme takes those still wide awake after dark on a frenzied tour through the nocturnal food chain. A silhouette of a cat stalking a rodent beneath the window of a wide-awake child’s bedroom sets the stage. In a quiet, blue-hued town, bursts of color and light indicate unseen activity. “Outside ­nighttime is action time for some… / THE MINI GO BALLISTIC.” Tiny dinoflagellates consuming bacteria make a meal for the copepods who will be eaten by the goby fish and so on, all the way up to jackals, owls, and finally tigers. “Tigers eat whatever they want.” Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored-pencil, and oil pastel illustrations layer bright colors that pop off the dark nighttime backgrounds and make dramatic use of light and shadow. Attractive compositions of flowing, swirling lines and shapes create the movement necessary for this busy animal world. When the wide-awake child, wearing a tiger suit, needs “one more prowl around the room / one more jump from pillow to pillow,” the whole family rallies for one last burst of play before the book comes to a quiet close. In a final, striking spread, an immense orange tiger winds through the sleeping town—one eye trained on an owl in the sky. Back matter provides more information on the creatures mentioned in this ecological bedtime story.

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