Good Night, Sleep Tight

 Fox, M., & Horacek, J. (2013). Good night, sleep tight. New York: Orchard Books. When Bonnie and Ben do not want to go to sleep, their babysitter, Skinny Doug tells them stories he heard from his mother. Without repeating his stories, Skinny Doug recites nursery rhymes that many young children are familiar with. The colorful pages and cheerful dialogue engages younger children in a before bed story.

The purpose of Mem Fox’s picture book was to bring to light nursery rhymes that children across America and Europe are familiar with. Mem Fox provides repetition within the text of Bonnie and Ben wanting to hear more, ‘“We love it! We love it!’ said Bonnie and Ben. ‘How does it go? Will you say it again?’” This keeps young children engaged and on the edge of their seats waiting to see and hear what is to come next. She highlights that nursery rhymes have been passed down from one generation to another as Doug offers to continue the night with more that he has heard from his mother, “But I’ll tell you another I heard from my mother.” Fox also brings to light that not only females can babysit. With society’s ideal image of a babysitter being female, Fox knocks the stereotypical image down and fills the role with Doug, the male babysitter, who cares for Bonnie and Ben. Judy Horacek provides pages full of color and simplistic illustrations that children can easily identify with.

When introducing poetry, Good Night, Sleep Tight is simplistic enough that it can be used to identify literary devices, such as rhyming, repetition, alliteration, and imagery.

Other books that could be used to pair with Good Night, Sleep Tight include the following:

·      Baby Bedtime by Mem Fox

o   ISBN 978-1481420976

·      Time for Bed by Mem Fox

o   ISBN 978-0152010669

·      The Full Moon at the Napping House by Audrey Wood

o   ISBN 978-0544308329

Booklist

“Ben and Bonnie’s babysitter, Skinny Doug, has a cool way to put his charges to sleep—with familiar rhymes. Familiar to him, that is. “Good night, sleep tight. / Hope the fleas don’t bite!” is one. “This Little Piggy” and “Pat-a-cake” are others. But they are new to the children, who say the same thing after each recitation: “‘We love it! We love it!’ said Bonnie and Ben. ‘How does it go? Will you say it again?’” Skinny Doug does not repeat, though. Instead he says, “I’ll tell you another. / I heard from my mother.” (This interplay does get the tiniest bit tired by the book’s end.) While a couple of the ditties will be new to American audiences (like “Round and round the garden / Like a teddy bear”), most will have children chanting along. The Quentin Blake–style pictures alternate between simple, warm scenes of Doug and his charges and the amusing ink-and-watercolor pictures that illustrate the rhymes, sometimes quite intricately. A fun book that will remind parents to pass along the golden oldies. Preschool-Grade 1. --Ilene Cooper”

Good night, sleep tight was a hit with my two year old. As he climbed into my lap, he was engaged with the text and illustrations. When reading each nursery rhyme, I acted out each one such as “It’s raining, it’s pouring,” “this little piggy,” and “pat-a-cake.”  I also took this opportunity to ask him to identify certain shapes and colors, such as stars, pigs, cars or as he call them, “beep, beeps.” We even identified facial features such as eyes, nose, and head. I ended up reading three times to appease him. I enjoyed his enthusiasm for wanting to read, even more that he wanted to look at the pictures before I turned the page to continue the story.