Eli's Night Light

When his night light burns out before he falls asleep, a young boy thinks of all the other sources of light that can brighten his room.

reS-Gr 1-When Eli's light burns out in the middle of the night, he takes comfort from other sources of illumination such as clock dials, headlights, and, finally, the stars. Rosenberg creatively addresses the child's fear ("His closet yawned like a dragon's hole-") and gradually soothes with the wonder of a clear, calm night sky. In two spots, the narrative switches to rhymed couplets, brusquely creating a challenging change of tempo for a read-aloud. Deep blues dominate Yardley's palette of pastels to craft realistic scenes while atypical perspectives and full-spread layouts provide pleasurable exploration of details.

Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

In this soothing tale, a resourceful boy finds an alternative to his night light, which burns out just as he is drifting off to sleep. Rather than panic or call for Mom and Dad, Eli looks around his room and realizes there is light everywhere. "The stripes of his wallpaper shone in the dark,/ and so did the frame on his picture of the park," writes Rosenberg (The Silence in the Mountains) in a soft, reassuring cadence. Her understated lyricism takes a particularly nice turn near book's end, when Eli finds comfort in the night sky with "hundreds of stars that would not burn out for a long, long time." Matching the mood of the text, Yardley (The Bracelet) employs a pastel palette of rich blues ranging from lapis to ink to evoke a nighttime that calms rather than intimidates. By composing many of her full-bleed pictures from Eli's perspective as he surveys his environment, she varies the visual interest of every spread, while firmly establishing the boy as the center of his environment. Ages 3-6.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3-6. Just before he falls asleep, Eli's night-light burns out. As the dark grows deeper and scarier, Eli wonders, "What else can be my night-light tonight?" He sees the gleam from the door, the glow of the clock, and light passing on the street. But when he looks out his window, "above his head, above his house, above the world," he sees a brilliant sky of stars that won't "burn out for a long, long time." In lulling rhythms and simple, lyrical words, the story perfectly captures a young child's fear of the dark and the profound reassurance he finds in gathering his courage and looking up and out at an infinite night sky. The beautiful words are well matched by velvety, indigo pastel illustrations of Eli's room, featuring a snoozing gray cat, that steer the story toward cozy familiarity and wonder and away from nighttime fear. A good choice to soothe anxious young insomniacs. Gillian Engberg
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