Good Night Earth – written and illustrated by Linda Bondestam

 Good Night Earth – written and illustrated by Linda Bondestam, translated by Galit Hasan-Rokem, Restless Books, 9781632062864, 2021 

Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 5

Format: Hardcover

Genre: Picture book

What did you like about the book?  In this sweet and beautifully designed small book, a little alien peers through a telescope at all the bedtime rituals on Earth. Using mixed media, Bondestam creates rich, layered illustrations featuring animals all across the globe: kittens wash their whiskers, meerkats stretch and relax, a sloth snuggles into his hammock mom. Delicate pen-and-ink applied over the colors give the animals very expressive faces. Some animals are shown doing human things, like a chimp who demands 73 songs on the ukulele or the axolotl who reads his favorite book. In a neat reversal, we’re then ushered into a child’s bedroom, where weary looking parents have followed all the animals’ examples to get their sweetie pie to sleep. Of course, the little alien also gets tucked into bed by the end of the story. A last giggle is still to come as an owl family drops off to sleep just as the sun rises. Occasional half pages cleverly open to reveal hidden actions. Although the book was originally published in Swedish, the translation is smooth and rhythmic. The text often appears in black on white strips, which helps with readability; often an issue in bedtime stories. 

Anything you didn’t like about it? No

To whom would you recommend this book?  Anyone looking for bedtime stories. With its small size and horizontal orientation, it neatly resembles Margaret Wise Brown’s classic Good Night Moon, and fans of that book will appreciate the contrast.

Who should buy this book? Public libraries

Where would you shelve it? Picture books

Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? No

Reviewer: Susan Harari, Keefe Library, Boston Latin School, Boston, MA

Date of review: April 23, 2021