Book Review:
Night Letters

by Palmyra LoMonaco
Illustrated by Normand Chartier
Reviewed by Christopher Essex

She jots down these memos from the animal, insect, and plant kingdoms as she walks around her family's farm. The last message, from the old sycamore tree, is an extended one, sharing the tree's memory's of seasons past.

This is a quiet, thoughtful book, a good choice for naptime or bedtime reading. The messages are like little poems. It might be a good activity to ask a child to think of a "night letter" from some animal, insect or plant from their own environment.

Some children may find the poetic metaphor of "night letters" a difficult one to grasp, and others may complain that there isn't much of a story here. A girl wanders around her back yard. Big deal, some more plot-oriented readers may say. And the extended sycamore episode, which climaxes with the simple statement, Please climb me tomorrow, could be more interesting. Most children will be familiar enough with other picture books about the seasons that another rehearsal of their order may not interest them sufficiently.

Illustration by Normand Chartier. Not to be reproduced without permission.
The artwork, watercolors by Normand Chartier, illustrator of more than fifty other children's books, is pleasant and colorful. The tones are appropriately evocative of early evening in the country. Lily is portrayed with glasses, which will no doubt be comforting to those young readers who have just gotten their own first pair.

So, while not a children's book for the ages, Night Letters could be just the perfect choice for a quiet bedtime moment between parent and child.

PCTO Rating: