A gazillion wee details fill this cheery and absorbing picture book about bedtime in a bug hotel.
As bedtime storybooks go, the pattern in Good Night, Sleep Tight is comfortingly familiar: a narrator goes through a series of steps before tucking in for the night. The magic here is in the details. Ladybug Dot carries a clipboard from room to room, making sure everyone is on target for bedtime. Has Dung Beetle taken his bath? Check. Stick Bug donned her pajamas? Check. Fly brushed teeth? Check.
Dutch illustrator Esther van den Berg, who previously illustrated Such a Library!: A Yiddish Folktale Re-imagined, has a bold and droll artistic style that features bright colors and figures with exaggerated attributes. Readers may want to linger in each guest's room, finding something new and sometimes giggle-worthy with repeated viewings of the digital illustrations. Fly has a framed print of a steaming pile of poop with a couple of flies (relatives, perhaps?) hovering above. Boots rest on a leaf doormat. Dung Beetle's bathtub is a teacup. There's more scatological humor in the bathroom where Pill Bug and Dot pee before bed. A child's illustration of a bearded pirate in a pink dress adorns Bookworm's walls, where Dot looks at books on Bookworm's sardine-can bed.
A sweet surprise--one final thing to check off the list before they all go to sleep--brings this fun book to a satisfying close, even if the Dutch-born author missed the opportunity to end with "Good night, sleep tight... don't let the bedbugs bite!" --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor