A family resembling a Charles Addams creation learns how to live during the night in this visual feast.
Karina Wolf, in her first picture book, charts a family that shifts from being a normal one that drives, goes to school and takes photographs during the sunlight hours, to one that "stayed awake only in nighttime." They've moved 12 time zones away for Mrs. Insomniac's new job. Mother nods off at her desk, Father falls asleep taking pictures, and the headmistress sends Mika home from school with a diagnosis of "sleeping sickness." The Brothers Hilts depict dark, shadowy rooms with people and mice in profile, and green, gold and red bottles gleaming in the few rays of sun. Mika's purported sickness is a wakeup call to the whole family. But nothing works, until they quiz their nocturnal neighbors.
The book's design juxtaposes velvety interiors of the Insomniacs' house with vignettes of them plotting to learn the bear's secret to how he beds down all winter long. A gorgeous image of the family members in search of the bears on a rolling landscape lit only by their lamps and a hint of sun on the horizon complements a curving colony of bats. A porthole view of owls, fireflies in a dense thicket of grass and a herd of moose approaching a pond all attest to a thriving nighttime scene.
In the end, the message is clear: If you accept your circumstances, you're more likely to figure out the best next steps. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness