All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds.

“Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘ THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both! (This book was reviewed digitally.)īright, playful tales for bold young adventurers in a world of make-believe. And the digestible stories are the perfect length for bedtime. These readers will find a kindred spirit in Sato. Perhaps at times illogical for adults, Sato’s adventures will resonate with young readers who imagine their rooms and backyards to be brand-new worlds filled with fantastical elements. Alternating vignettes and full-page illustrations immerse the reader in each boldly illustrated scene, with a lush, eye-catching palette that deserves repeat viewings to observe varying textures and lines in the artwork. Though at times embodying Lewis Carroll’s absurdity, Ainoya’s stories also evoke the quiet pleasure of Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad series. The tales appear to take place across a calendar year, depicting the seasons in all their natural splendor. Each story is a tiny journey into Sato’s vast imagination. Sato, a light-skinned child dressed in a white rabbit suit, transforms an ordinary teatime into a series of whimsical adventures involving a raspberry room, a kite catching a slice of sky, a spoon that becomes a waterfall and collects golden stars, and more. A fanciful collection of stories about a rabbit-child.

Sato the Rabbit by Yuki Ainoya