I Love The Night
By Dar Hosta 

     What do you do at bedtime when your child wants to stay up and watch "Toy Story" for the 200th time? Tell her that Woody and Buzz adore I Love the Night. It may not work (kids grow smarter by the day), but if you've made reading a part of your bedtime ritual, your child will turn off the DVD and may even humor you about the Woody and Buzz thing. Soon she'll be on her way to dreamland, although you may have to wait 10 minutes for the brush-teeth ritual.

     Once your child is snuggled under the covers, even with all the stimuli and possible high sugar buzz, she'll listen, rapt, to Dar Hosta's poetic bedtime story. The swish of bats, the "fabulously fabulous" joy and rapture of frogs at the magnificence of the night, and the gentle sounds of Hosta's words will lull your child to sleep, giving you those precious moments watching her hold her teddy bear while you wonder if anything has ever been so perfect or angelic. Until, of course, she wakes you up at 5 a.m. wanting to see Woody and Buzz "To Infinity…And Beyond!" Here's a tip: Read her the book again. And again. And again. After the tenth time, she'll fall asleep, the deep sleep growing kids need, and she'll dream of soaring with the owl, singing soulfully with the whippoorwills, and eating fruit with the fruit bats that carry Hosta's lyrical words from page to beautifully illustrated page.

     Hosta's pictures complement her prose, reflecting innocence, evocative of the divine beauty of nature. It works as well on adults as it does on children, letting us tune out the television in the next room, the noise in our heads from the worries of the day, cars honking outside, and simply listen to the sounds of the night, its silences and its melodies. We remember sitting in the grass with our own parents watching the stars, or camping and listening to the owl hooting. Lulled by Hosta's exquisite lullaby, we may even sleep better. Soon we will say, "We, too, love the night!"