The Goodnight Book: A Dream State
Review by Mo
Duffy Cobb
How do you say good night? Author Lori Joy Smith asks
in her new artistic reverie, The Goodnight
Book.
“Mommy,
please, one more.” In classic bedtime theme, young readers are invited into the
world of fainting farewells, and the ever-living world of tomorrow's tomorrows.
Drawing upon the natural realm, writer and illustrator Lori Joy Smith begins
with the soft bedroom kisses of good
night, bonne nuit, buenas noches. But soon, The
Goodnight Book's organic shapes begin to take on a life of their own, with
much left to interpretation.
Have you
ever wondered if the tulips say goodnight to their bulbs, the crab grass to its
beach, the mountains to the moon? Smith has, and her exploration of the world's
magic doesn’t stop there, her hues soon hatching their own bedtime spectrum.
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I loved
the gentleness of this tale, the mysteries of the creatures, and the bits of
sleepy dream space where enchantment and invention prevail. Smith sheds a final
sun's ray on the secret world of the abstract in complimentary colors and
shapes, softly balancing each page. Even the sun gets sleepy when setting.
Smith
dreams in owly souls who say “took a boo,” and slumberous baby whale fish who
cuddle their young with an evening's gentle “light away.” She dreams in
comfortable nests and fluffy white pillows, sweet tempered seaweeds that sway
in the current. With her forms blending into the night, Smith dreams in
beginnings, not endings, in possibilities, not promises.
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Bedtimes
have long been fertile ground for the imagination, of monster mains and kings
in the closet. Smith's pages now quell babes and big kids alike, with sudden urges
for water and back rubs finally subsiding. In The Goodnight Book, our contemplation become real, the textures of
Smith's nuzzling light taking shape as we slowly, slowly drift out to sea.
Lori Joy Smith is the
illustrator of three books now, "Noisy Poems for a Busy Day", (Robert
Heidbreder) and "Run Salmon Run" (Bobs & Lolo). "The Goodnight
Book" is the first story that Lori has both written and illustrated, a
story come to life from the fuzzy depths of her own children's bedrooms.
THE GOODNIGHT
BOOK
Illustrated, 16
Pages. (Simply Reads Books, 2014)
$12.95
Mo Duffy Cobb lives in
Charlottetown PEI. She is a ferocious writer, an English teacher and a student
of Creative Nonfiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. http://furthermo.com/
