Time for Bed by Mem Fox and Illustrated by Jane Dyer

This story at first seemed to repetitive. Although I am used to receptiveness in children books the first line always repeated itself. For example “It’s Time for bed, little mouse, little mouse,” or “It’s time for bed, little goose little goose.” Then however as I read it more and more I realized how calming the repeated words were and how the repetitiveness was like counting sheep. It slowly would rock a child to sleep. The story in and of itself was quite good. It starts out with describing the world outdoors and how it’s time for bed. Than it points directly at the reader asking what they are doing still awake; it uses animals to get its point across. Mem Fox ends her book with saying good night to a little child. This would be a great book to read to a child as they go to sleep. This book uses at time the second person narrative and thus a character’s voice appears. This allows the reader themselves to become the character putting their child to sleep. She also uses the pattern of words to help children predict what is coming next.

The only time I would read this book to students in a classroom is if it was nap time. This book is great for lulling a child to sleep. Jane Dyer’s choice of color helps with this process. She uses muted hues of complementary colors on each page. The style itself is painterly as one can at places see the brush strokes. All of this combined with the soft words help close a child’s heavy eyelids.
Published: 1993