A NAP IN A LAP

A child tallies favored napping places for a variety of baby animals, “sprawled upside-down / or cuddled in fur / or feathered in brown,” then concludes that, “the best nap for ME . . . / is a nap in a lap!” In the simple, open illustrations, the young narrator and a puppy check out families of bats, bears, and birds, along with camels, bunnies, and other creatures, then skip back inside for some parental fussing over. The text, often broken into only four or five words per page, sometimes “reads” too quickly for young listeners to absorb the accompanying pictures, but the sonorous rhyme and menagerie of familiar, dozy animals make this an effective settle-downer. (Picture book. 4-6)