Title: Good Night, Sleep Tight
Subtitle: A Collection of Children’s Bedtime Stories
Author: Maryann B. McCrea
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 979-8-8230-6664-8
Pages: 44
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Reviewer: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
The innocence of a child’s mind being read, bedtime stories is a very unique and special aspect of parenting. Children, or grandchildren, will accept the premise of personified animals, supernatural events, and fanciful coincidents, while imagining everything which happens to be possible with complete enthusiastic acceptance. Perhaps bedtime stories are one of the most pleasurable interactions between any child and adult, yet one challenge is to be able to come up with new and original content to create these precious moments.
This is where Good Night, Sleep Tight by author Maryann B. McCrea becomes such a valuable resource to fill the need for creative content of comforting stories. In this heavily illustrated collection of short stories, children will be lulled into a safe and enjoyable zone to doze off into dreamland. The four stories included in this collection is one of talking clouds in the sky, another of stuffed animals going on a journey in a helicopter with a young boy, one about being a big dump truck with a flat tire, and finally having two trees growing next to each other – one loosing its’ leaves and the other being a Christmas tree. Each story stands on its own premise yet each is narrated in a comforting written voice of a loving grand-mother who wants to share these stories with other youngsters.
The interleaving of so many illustrations carries each story perfectly and balanced, having the children’s eyes catch the details of each picture as the words flow on four original themes of imaginary events. This creates a storyboard of words and pictures lifting the short stories off the pages and into the minds at bedtime.
This quality is exactly what is intended, and Maryann B. McCrea does it so well she makes it look easy. I highly enjoyed this book and do believe it would be an excellent addition to any family library with youngsters, or given as a baby shower present. We certainly hope to have more from this author in the future.
Maryann B. McCrea’s Good Night, Sleep Tight: A Collection of Children’s Bedtime Stories invites readers to make storytelling part of that nightly ritual. For parents, grandparents, and caregivers seeking a book to share as the day draws to a close, this collection offers an opportunity to bring books into a child’s everyday life. Reading together can become more than a bedtime routine.
