Jones uses saturated, vibrant colors and a lack of outlines in his illustrations to create a vivid dreamscape. Hosford’s quiet, whimsical text ultimately settles on reassurance, demonstrating a respect for the needs of a young child: “Hold my hand and lead the way / Our home is still above the bay. / And everything is still the same / You and I are glow and flame.” Tender without being saccharine and fanciful without any dramatics, this is the epitome of a bedtime book.
Description
This whimsical picture book celebrates the loving, playful, and imaginative relationship between caregiver and child through a shared dreamy journey before bedtime.
The wind is calling. Hear it sweep
through our village, fast asleep.
Will you sail away with me?
You and I are salt and sea…
And so, bathtime turns into a magical expedition. A grown-up and child embark on the voyage together, meeting mermaids in the sea, playing hide-and-seek in an enchanted forest, and soaring with the birds before sailing home to read and snuggle in for bedtime, which they know is just another adventure beginning.
Through it all, they cherish the most important thing in both dreamland and the real world: being together.
Reviews
Hosford’s melodious rhymes and Jones’s serene, soft-edged paintings highlight a caregiver and child’s grounding partnership in this lullaby-like story. . . . As the companions venture forth, “You and I” becomes an iterative refrain that sees the duo’s connection expressed as common pairings (“boat and sail,” “fork and spoon,” “ebb and flow”). . . . Employing dusty blues, purples, and pinks, the illustrations generate a dreamy effect, and concluding pages see the subjects’ adventuring shift into cuddles in this anchoring bedtime send-off.
Bedtime preparations kick off a romp through the imagination. Hosford’s soothing first-person text, told from the perspective of the grown-up, combines with the comforting deep blues and greens of Jones’ digitally finished acrylic and watercolor illustrations for a natural bedtime read that’s also likely to be a popular gift among new parents. A soothing, poetic look at a common nighttime routine.
