On a Summer Night

PreS-Gr 2–In this charming and cumulative story, a young child who has brown skin seeks to find what has woken her in the middle of a seemingly silent summer night. After leaving her bedroom, the unnamed protagonist travels through the dark house, and passes her snoozing cat, who similarly wakes and follows her outside. Still trying to find the source of what stirred her, the child encounters a barking dog, silent rabbit, a rustling tree, moving air, and traveling cloud, all the while wondering what woke them from their slumber. As the child turns to go back to her room, the drowsy creatures all return to their dreams, before revealing the culprit: the bright and yellow moon. Hopkinson employs a winning combination of lilting, poetic second-person text filled with repetitive questions, while Pak’s tranquil nocturnal spreads cleverly reveal the moon’s responsibility throughout the story. Read with Natalie Ziarnik’s A Lullaby of Summer Things or Stephen Savage’s Moonlight for a perfect pairing of summer bedtime stories.