Good Night, World

by Willa Perlman, Carolyn Fisher (Illustrator)

Overview

This Classic Board Book edition of Good Night, World is a charming bedtime book that celebrates the wonders of the natural world.

Good night sun and other stars,
good night Saturn, Venus, Mars.
Elsewhere in the world it’s light,
it’s morning there, but here it’s night.

As the sun sets from east to west, this soothing board book takes children on a magical round-the-world journey to bid good night to the world’s natural wonders, from plants and animals to mountains, oceans, and wide desert plains. Willa Perlman’s soothing, lyrical text combines with Carolyn Fisher’s sweeping illustrations to paint a vivid picture of everything, everywhere going to sleep—including an imaginative little boy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534443846
Publisher:	Little Simon
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Series:	Classic Board Books
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,040,139
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	1 - 4 Years

About the Author

Willa Perlman is a former publishing executive who now runs a recruitment firm. She’s the author of Good Night, World and I Already Love You. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Carolyn Fisher is the author and illustrator of The Snow Show, as well as the illustrator of Goodnight, World by Willa Perlman and Weeds Find a Way by Cindy Jenson-Elliot. She teaches illustration at the Alberta College of Art and Design, and she regularly tours the country talking to people about art and book. She lives with her husband and their son in Calgary, Canada. Visit her online at CarolynFisher.com.

Editorial Reviews

As the sun sets, a towheaded child bids good night to the animals and natural phenomena outside in this simple, languid bedtime book. Perlman's (Pocket Kisses) couplets put a particular emphasis on color ("Turning Earth, good night to you./ Good night, deserts, pink and blue") as the book moves from celestial to earthly realms. With an amalgam of textures, batiklike patterns, and images within images, Fisher's (The Snow Show) pictures offer somewhat abstracted visions of familiar motifs—planets in the sky, breaking waves, animals in their habitats. Swirling strokes give some scenes a sense of motion; "Good night, rocky, gurgling stream," reads the verse as inky, turbulent waters pour down a neon green hillside, dotted by triangular and scribbly trees. Fisher also hand-letters the text and adds a connecting thread: a red-winged bird appears in each spread and eventually curls up with the sleeping child. The text's repetition of good-night wishes strikes a familiar chord, and though the art feels fresh, it has a certain remoteness as well. While the world depicted isn't unfriendly, it's not especially comforting either. Ages 2–5. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Good Night Moon goes global in this lovely ode to the world...Children will love poring over the lush pictures in this gentle nighttime lullaby."–School Library Journal

"Perlman's...couplets put a particular emphasis on color...as the book moves from celestial to earthly realms. With an amalgam of textures, batiklike patterns, and images within images, Fisher's...pictures offer somewhat abstracted visions of familiar motifs—planets in the sky, breaking waves, animals in their habitats."
—Publishers Weekly, May 23, 2011

"There is much to see and think about in the illustrations for this simple bedtime rhyme. Fittingly, the text concludes with a list of ways to say goodnight in 16 languages, written in appropriate scripts and including pronunciations. A sweet dream, indeed."
—Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2011

"Splendid pictures that navigate the earth as night arrives and a small blond-haired child’s sweet wonder at the imagined journey raise this offering above most going-to-bed books.... By the time the child curls up in an earth-blue ball filled with the shadowy outlined shapes of the animals encountered in the good-night litany, listeners will be ready for their own sweet dreams.... This is a beautiful addition to a traditional picturebook topic."

—Booklist, July 1, 2011

From the Publisher

PreS-K—Good Night Moon (Harper, 1947) goes global in this lovely ode to the world. A child getting ready for bed bids good night to everything he knows about. Starting large with the sun and the stars, he includes Earth's deserts, mountains, oceans, and animals, and then narrows in on his neighborhood, family, and friends. The evocative rhyme scans perfectly: "Turning Earth, good night to you./Good night, deserts pink and blue./Good night mountains capped in white./Ocean's breaking waves, good night." Each verse is grandly illustrated with a large, double-page painting. Fisher's multicolored, textured drawings match the expansive tone of the book with a wide palette of swirling colors and layered details. Children will love poring over the lush pictures in this gentle nighttime lullaby.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT

School Library Journal

A youngster settling into bed ponders a curious fact: "Elsewhere in the world it's light. / It's morning there, but here it's night."

This leads him (or possibly her) to imagine the bird on the window sill flying around the world to say goodnight to everything. Beginning with stars and planets, passing through deserts, mountains and oceans, bidding goodnight to rain forests and animals far away, the bird comes closer and closer to home, to the child's own street and house, yard animals and, finally, his siblings and friends. "Good night, world, / as darkness brings... / SWEET DREAMS / to every living thing." The dreaming child curls up with a stuffed rabbit and the bird. Fisher's slightly surreal mixed-media illustrations on double page spreads combine painted patterns, textures and surprising colors. An oryx bounds across a marbled pink-and-blue desert. Greenish whales cavort in breaking Hokusai-inspired waves, midnight blue and capped with white against a pink sky. On one spread, trees are drawn as crayoned triangles; on another, a single leaf, apparently collage, forms the body. There is much to see and think about in the illustrations for this simple bedtime rhyme. Fittingly, the text concludes with a list of ways to say goodnight in 16 languages, written in appropriate scripts and including pronunciations.

A sweet dream, indeed. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews