ON A SUMMER NIGHT

What is it that wakes up a child, a house cat, and other sleepers on a hot summer night?

There’s a subtle clue to the cause in Pak’s dim, serene scenes as a brown-skinned child, limned in the thinnest hint of golden light, rises from bed and heads to the backyard to walk in dew-flecked grass, to feel the warm dirt against bare feet, and to gaze up at the night sky. Meanwhile a cat follows along, a small dog barks across the way, a rabbit peeks out from behind a bush—and opposite each scene, we see a page filled with a dark grayish-brown block of color that retreats as a pale wedge of color slowly expands. At last the sleepers all go back to their beds, a cloud passes in the sky, and the conundrum’s answer washes in: “Bright, bright! / The light crosses the table, / climbs the stairs, / smooths the sheets / on your bed. / Mysterious, golden, / and round.” The short, deliberate phrases of Hopkinson’s verse and the simple illustrations with their subdued overall lighting combine to slow the nocturnal episode down to a properly and irresistibly snoozy pace.

Spare, rhythmic, luminous…nighty night.