Night Light [I Like to Read: Comics]
by Michael Emberley; illus. by the author
Primary    Holiday    40 pp.
4/25    9780823458165    $14.99

Emberley’s familiar pink-and-green-pajama-wearing creature (see Let’s Go!, rev. 1/23, and others) returns for another imaginative early-reader-comic mini-adventure, this time with a parent in tow. It’s bedtime, and after selecting a story (one that alludes to the author’s father, Ed Emberley’s, Go Away, Big Green Monster!), the pair is interrupted by a blackout. When the flashlight’s batteries begin to die, the parent takes the next logical step: climb an impossibly long ladder to gather stars from the night sky. But there are unintended consequences: namely, a sobbing moon afraid of the now-pitch-black night. In a joyful double-page spread, parent and child selflessly release a murmuration of bird-like stars back into the sky, once again leaving themselves in the dark. Cleverly, the parent coaxes the child up to the apartment’s roof to enjoy the illumination of the returned stars, allowing the pair to share their long-awaited bedtime story. Emberley’s strict adherence to whimsical kid-logic, along with the little creature’s repeated declarations (“Too dark!” / “Too bright!”), read as respectful of children’s fears, while the ever-changing panel configurations and layouts add complexity to the reading experience. Special attention is given to the manipulation of color to produce lighting effects throughout the book from sources as varied as stars, flashlights, windows, and the moon. Imaginative play brightens up bedtime rituals in this funny and sincere comic perfectly pitched for emerging readers.

From the March/April 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.