Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Night Cars
Illustrator: Eric Beddows
Board Book
For ages 2 to 4
Groundwood Books, 2006 ISBN: 0888997485
Night is coming and a little baby living in a city apartment cannot fall asleep. Instead he looks out of the window at the street below. He watches the world go by, he sees the ?night cars? going down the street and he watches the people. As he watches, the little boy drifts off to sleep for a little while but then he is awake again and asks to see the trucks in the street as snow drifts down.
And so it goes on through the night. The little boy sleeps for a bit and then he wakes up and rouses his father to look out of the window and to see the snow plows doing their job. He watches the lights changes and he sees a fire truck go screaming past. He perhaps sees the garbage men and their big truck, or perhaps he is sleeping when they come down the street.
Then the morning arrives and the little boy watching the street come to life. At last it is time to get up. Soon it will be time for him and his Daddy to join that world out on the street beyond the window.
Wonderful double page spread illustrations showing the baby in the foreground and the street in the background have a definite vintage feel. A minimal text with simple rhymes sweeps the reader from page to page with a soft rhythm which is soothing and which would be perfect for bedtime reading.
