Good Night, Mouse!

The gloomy little mouse from Cheer Up, Mouse! (rev. 1/13) is back, and this time his forest friends are trying to figure out how to get him to sleep, each in the way that would work for its own species. Rabbit is sure that jumping is the thing, but a round of jump rope doesn't work -- Mouse only gets tangled up. Hedgehog favors snuggling and cuddling, but as Squirrel says, looking at the uncomfortable Mouse, "No one wants a pointy pillow." Each animal friend from the first book returns here, including Frog, Badger, and Star-Nosed Mole, combining universally familiar animals with less common ones children may enjoy trying to name. This time it is Bat who comes up with the solution, engaging the tree frogs and crickets in orchestrating a lullaby. Henry makes the nighttime forest look soft, warm, and welcoming, perfect for soothing little human children to sleep with the lovely closing "stars above you, / friends who love you / stay beside you while you dream." susan dove lempke