LULLABY-BERCEUSE

A pretty nighttime book in simple words: “Night loves the prairies,” it begins, rhyming gently over beautiful textured paintings of darkling grasses, skies fading to rust and gold, birds in the sky. A red truck, mailboxes by the side of the road and an older boy, as well as the little one to whom the lullaby is told, grace the pictures. An included CD contains lullabies in French and in English, and the lyrics for those are at the end. Some songs parents will recognize, like the Brahms lullaby sung in French; others are the author’s originals. Kaldor, a Canadian folksinger, sings in a warm, lush voice. While the lullabies seem a bit overproduced for bedtime, they and the story each also stand well alone. (Picture book. 3-7)