Rebecca E. Hirsch - Night Creatures: Animals That Swoop, Crawl, and Creep While You Sleep

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As the sun sets, night creatures awaken. In their rural backyard, a parent and child camp out, watching as fireflies flicker, bats flap, and rabbits race. Atmospheric illustrations bring the nocturnal world to life in this lyrical and informative picture book.
A child and caregiver enjoy an outdoor fire while night creatures become active around them.
There are a tent and a campfire in a field dotted with trees, a pond in the foreground and a two-story house in the background. Dusk has just given way to night. A bat hangs upside down, and a family of raccoons pokes their heads out of the trunk of a tree. Night bugs blink on while other creatures creep in search of food, leap, crouch, prowl, watch, pounce, and snatch. Close-ups of the animals finding their food dominate the spreads, while the brown-skinned child and adult roast marshmallows and point at stars. As morning light appears with the robins and the deer, the human pair walk back toward the house while night creatures return / to quiet dens / and dusky nooks. The illustrations effectively represent the night world on the page, with shadow and muted colors that require readers to look closely and pay attention. The spare, lyrical text is rhythmic and soothing, just right for a bedtime story. Most of the animals are not named in the text, which allows space for guesswork and discussion before turning to the full spread of endmatter for more information about the night creatures.
Well executed.-Kirkus Reviews
A mother and young child are camping in their backyard. As the sun sets, during an ideal summer night, many creatures will make themselves known over the course of the campout. The parade starts with fireflies, followed by a lynx just missing a rabbit dinner, then a skunk family arrives, and finally a raccoon reaches into the shallows of a pond. A great horned owl swoops silently by catching a mouse while deer begin to appear at the edges of the meadow. The arrival of a noisy robin heralds the morning. The mother and child return home where a father and younger sibling await on the porch. The family presents as African American. A simple poem accompanies richly painted illustrations. The books final two pages devote greater detail about each animal. Thumbnail illustrations accompanied by a paragraph of information divide the animals into crepuscular, nocturnal, and diurnal. Unfortunately, the book seems too simple on the front end and too complex on the back end. It might work one-on-one with an interested listener as opposed to a group read aloud. Better choices for the target audience might be The Night World by Mordicai Gerstein and Night Animals by Gianna Marino. VERDICT An additional purchase where the topic is in demand.-School Library Journal