Good Night Kiss, The

Good Night Kiss, The

From School Library Journal PreSchool-Grade 2-A wandering, wide-ranging bedtime story. Starting with a frog in a pond who sees a raccoon, the text makes a series of extended connections between animals and people who, one at a time, eventually lead readers to a child's bedroom. The associations are sometimes tenuous, and the night is peculiarly active; no one except the child at the end of the chain of events seems to be preparing for sleep. Perhaps it is the randomness of the story line that makes this book unusual, but its lack of direction is disconcerting. Krudop's full-page, painterly, impressionistic renderings, showing deep yellow lights across a night sky and dark (though not ominous) subjects, have unusual perspectives-sometimes aerial, sometimes close to the ground, sometimes omnisciently focused at eye level-and always reflect the indistinct depths of darkness. While the story ends with the promised good-night kiss, overall the closure is as unpredicated and haphazard as what comes before it.Ruth K. MacDonald, Quinnipiac College, Hamden, CTCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. The nighttime world includes lots of quiet activity, from animals moving in the woods to cars on the city streets to a child hearing a bedtime story and receiving a goodnight kiss