Children's picture book. Darkness is falling everywhere and little ones are getting sleepy, feeling cozy, and being tucked in. PreSchool-Grade 2-Charming illustrations and comfortable rhymes characterize this appealing bedtime book. A twilight mood is set by dusky endpapers sprinkled with twinkling yellow stars, and by a title page showing a mother reading to a child. Double-page spreads feature animal pairs, each with a parent settling its offspring down for the night. An orange tabby kitten receives a soothing bath, a sleepy blue bird is tucked into a warm nest, and a delicate fawn curls up against its mother. Each babe is lulled by a gently rhyming couplet beginning with the phrase, "It's time for bed." Dyer's watercolor illustrations are dear. Large, clearly drawn animals are placed against backgrounds of vivid hues. A variety of landscapes keeps each scene looking fresh as a foal settles down in a moonlit meadow, a pair of fish blow bubbles in blue water, and two snakes curl up in overgrown grass. Working beautifully with the soothingly repetitive text, each painting conveys a warm feeling of safety and affection. A wonderful bedfellow for Ginsburg's Asleep, Asleep (Greenwillow, 1992). Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. Ages 21/2-4. Both parents and children should like this cozy good-night story. Against a blanket of blue sky full of golden stars, mother animals are putting their babies to sleep. Although the rhyme at times limps rather than lilts ("It's time for bed, little mouse, little mouse, / Darkness is falling all over the house"), there's a warmth to this that makes the whole more than the sum of its parts. Of course, one of the important parts is the art--striking watercolors that fill up the two-page spreads, showing a sheep and a lamb, a dog and a puppy, a cow and a calf, and others, the babies all with heavy lids, and the mothers affectionately nestling their young. The last mother-child duo is a mom and her curly-headed tot, who is wished sweet dreams and in the last picture is sound asleep. A pleasant prelude to slumber. Ilene Cooper A gentle litany of good nights, ostensibly from various animals to their young (``It's time for bed, little mouse, little mouse,/Darkness is falling all over the house'') but mostly more apposite to their human counterparts (``It's time for bed, little calf, little calf,/What happened today that made you laugh?''), ending, inevitably, with a human mother tucking in a child. Fox's couplets seem offhand compared to her best (e.g., Shoes from Grandpa, 1990); but some of Dyer's expansive double-spread watercolors are charming; their points of view are so close in that some animals appear life-size (the bees are oversize). Best are the shaggy, drowsy, contented ewe and her lamb; repeated on the jacket, they guarantee a constant audience for this appealing bedtime book. (Picture book. 2-6) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "Working beautifully with the soothingly repetitive text, each painting conveys a warm feeling of safety and affection."-- School Library Journal MEM FOX is the author of many acclaimed books, including Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Possum Magic, Koala Lou, Time for Bed, and, for adults, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever. She lives in Adelaide, Australia. Jane Dyer has illustrated many well-loved picture books, including Move Over, Rover! , a Geisel Honor Book written by Karen Beaumont; Oh My Baby, Little One , an ABA Pick of the Lists and Parent's Choice Recommended Book written by Kathi Appelt; and the bestselling classic Time for Bed by Mem Fox. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. A bedtime story with rhyming text and lovely watercolor images of baby animals.