CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER – 1945
Rachel Field, author
Elizabeth Orton Jones, illustrator
New York: Macmillan, 1944
26 pp
Age: infant +
Interests: prayer, God, bedtime, night
A simple prayer-poem written for one little girl, but also for all the children of the world. Warm, soft drawings depict the girl and her world – her room, her toys, her friends, her parents. A rhythmic, soothing book for bedtime. Similar to Goodnight Moon, in that the girl lists the things around her, but in the form of a prayer. And it moves from the immediate (her room), out to the global (all the children of the world).
Books with a spiritual theme have gone a little out of style in recent years, but here is a gentle, sweet one for families open to the idea.