And We’re off to Bed

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Car says Kate Dopirak and Mary Peterson. And our little car is off beeping goodnight to all his friends. And by the end, pulls in back at home, sleepy and ready to go to bed himself. The end.

Sadly, there is not a lot of text to this book for the toddler crowd. The text loses traction for many reasons. The least being the short amount of text. The main one is the story has been done before. However, if you are looking for a bedtime story for a child who likes vehicles, then this could be the book. I read it in the reader-copy format, so I did not get a chance to “feel the final product” but I have a feeling this book would be much better in a board book format than the traditional picture book format. (To the publisher: If you have not thought of this already, please think about it now!)

The illustrations are sparse and unrealistic. They have an almost childlike quality to them. I basically can only draw a crooked stick-figure and therefore, understand the difficulty in creating art. Because of this I appreciate the work that goes into making any type of illustrations. However, for this title, I would have preferred something a bit more realistic.

I understand that I am not the audience for this title, therefore, I must backtrack a bit and look at it from a toddler’s viewpoint. They will like seeing the vehicles. They will like the fact there is not a lot of text that will bog them down. There is not a lot of action as this is meant as a bedtime story, therefore, might be good “quiet time” read. It also would be a good book to start to read with your beginning reader.