Ten, Nine, Eight

No tricks, nothing fancy—just (in a welcome departure for Bang) a simple, reverberating bedtime count-down. The full-color, flatly-painted illustrations have in fact something of a primitivist Goodnight Moon feel (and somewhat the same coloration). "10 small toes all washed and warm," we begin; "9 soft friends in a quiet room." The feet are brown (with pink-rimmed toes against a red ground); the "soft friends" are stuffed animals and dolls, and a Siamese cat; the one unobtrusive pictorial device is the repetition of motifs from one illustration to the next—the toes poke into the stuffed animal picture, the cat does various cat-like things further on. But there is also of course a natural progression, not only numerically but in-point-of-time. At "5 round buttons on a yellow gown," we narrow in on the father-and-child we saw at the outset—and then proceed, via "3 sleepy kisses," to "1 big girl all ready for bed." Counting-down, from counting toes, is an inspired approach to bedtime. The pictures don't exhaust themselves, and neither does the experience.

Copyright 1983 Kirkus Reviews, LLC Used with permission.

"A loving family picture story." — Boston Globe

"A delightful bedtime book." — The New York Times Book Review