Goodnight, Good Dog by Mary Lyn Ray (review)

It’s time for bed, and while “the dog knows the click of the lamp when the light is turned off” and the other indications that night is here, he’s just not sleepy. He roams the house, thinking about the pleasant events of his day and checking on the human sleepers, but he’s still not sleepy; well, “only a little. Just a little,” so he curls up in his soft bed, dreams of the sun, and soon it’s morning again. Ray gently unspools her bedtime story thread; her hushed sentences, carefully varying in length, are easy on the drowsy ear and nocturnally evocative (“He also knows the quiet that comes: moon quiet”). Malone’s acrylic illustrations are thickly lined, softly dimensional, and cozy in moonlit full-bleeds and creamy backgrounded vignettes. There’s a Pooh-like cuddliness to the honey-colored pup, with his plush simplicity and irresistibly pettable ears. Whether or not audiences catch the kid-proxy echoes in the dog’s resistance to bedtime, they’ll be enchanted by the pooch’s dozy meanderings and eventual sleepy example.