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Summary
Summary
A little tiger takes an imaginative journey in Close Your Eyes, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year and a Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
The little tiger lay on his back in the tall grass.
"Close your eyes, little tiger," said his mother, "and go to sleep."
But the little tiger is worried about what sleep might bring.
His mother reassures him that once he closes his eyes, he will dream of magical places. And when he awakens, she will be right there, waiting for him.
Alternating between real-life scenes with the baby tiger and his mother and enchanted dream scenes of sleep's possibilities, Kate Banks's simple, comforting text and Georg Hallensleben's bright, colorful illustrations make this a charming bedtime story for small children.
Author Notes
Kate Banks (1960 - 2024) wrote many books for children, among them Max's Words , And If the Moon Could Talk , winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and The Night Worker , winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. She grew up in Maine, where she and her two sisters and brother spent a lot of time outdoors, and where Banks developed an early love of reading. Banks attended Wellesley College and received her master's in history at Columbia University. She lived in Rome for eight years and lived in the South of France with her husband and two sons, Peter Anton and Maximilian.
Georg Hallensleben has collaborated on several books with Kate Banks, including The Cat Who Walked Across France , Baboon , Close Your Eyes and The Night Worker , winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. Hallensleben
lives in Paris.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Toddler-PreS-A little tiger's mama allays his fears of the dark and encourages him to go to sleep. "Dark is just the other side of light. It's what comes before dreams." She assures him that his dreams can be bold and adventurous and that she'll always be right at his side when he awakens. The soothing words and reassuring message and Hallensleben's splendid, painterly landscapes and dreamscapes create a lovely package to curl up to and revisit, nap after nap, night after night. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Banks and Hallensleben further develop the bedtime theme of And If the Moon Could Talk and The Night Worker, this time with the antics of a restless tiger cub. On a sunny midafternoon in a tropical forest, a mother tiger persuades her son to take a nap. "If I close my eyes, I can't see the sky," the mischievous tiger protests, in a portrait framed by the white page. "Yes you can.... You can even float among the clouds," his mother promises, as a fantasy spread pictures fluffy animal-shaped clouds and the little feline reclining in a half-moon; alternating full-bleed images like this one suggest the listener is relaxing into a dream. At last, the cub squeezes his eyes shut. "It's dark," he says. "Dark like your stripes," his mother observes. Banks styles the text as a give-and-take, while Hallensleben sets the jungle scene in impasto layers of sapphire, jade and aquamarine that complement the yellow-orange of the tigers' coats. Roughly hewn paintings depict the patient mother as a bona-fide predator, and her son as a cuddly fellow with bright black eyes, round ears and an upturned smile. Banks and Hallensleben conspicuously borrow the strategy of Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd's classic The Runaway Bunny, which similarly toggles between reality and reverie, and likewise ends with the mother having the last word. At this book's satisfying close, the son falls asleep as his mother promises to be there when he wakes. Ages 3-6. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Preschool) Banks and Hallensleben have created several exceptional picture books that gently invite young children to explore the world around them. This latest collaboration is smaller in scope, focusing on the child's immediate surroundings and the dreamland that awaits in sleep. A mother tiger settles her restless cub, who doesn't want to close his eyes, with quieting promises of fanciful dreams even more wonderful than the sky and trees and birds he sees in his jungle home and with assurances that she will be there when he wakes. The rich oil paintings depict a lush, inviting jungle setting-which would indeed be hard to relinquish in favor of sleep-but also suggest a colorful dreamland of hide-and-seek and flying games. The softly rounded animal forms are more friendly than realistic in both dream (a plaid whale) and waking (a smiling croc) worlds, a style suited to the soothing bedtime story. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A familiar dance between mother and child begins as the night descends on the jungle and the little tiger refuses to close his eyes and go to sleep. At first the little tiger is worried that he might miss something if he drifts off. "If I close my eyes," he said, "I can't see the sky." He continues to worry that he will not see the tree and "the bird with the blue feathers," but each time his mother comforts him, telling him of all the wonderful things that he will be able to do in his dreams. Satisfied that he will be able to play and maybe even fly in his dream world, the little tiger then becomes worried that he might fall or become lost, but his mother comforts him again. She tells him that she will always be there for him. Finally satisfied, the little tiger closes his eyes and dreams of far away places safe between his mother's paws. Bright, textured illustrations rendered in broad brushstrokes on oversized pages depict the little tiger's lush surroundings and his fanciful dreamscape. While not terribly original, parents searching for another way to convince little ones to go to sleep might give this one a try if for no other reason to share the pictures before bedtime. (Picture book. 3-6)
Booklist Review
PreS. Banks and Hallensleben offer another lyrical nighttime tale, framed this time around a sweet, conversation between mother and child that is reminiscent of Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny. Deep in the grasslands, a restless tiger cub resists sleep. "If I close my eyes I can't see the sky," he protests to his mother. The little tiger has more excuses: with closed eyes, he can't see a favorite tree or the blue bird. But his mother reassures him that when he lets his dream imagination soar, he can see these things and more, and that when he awakes, she'll be there. As usual, Banks' language will delight young children with its delicious rhythms, patterned sounds, and the mystery in the poetic imagery: "Dark is just the other side of light. It's what comes before dreams." Hallensleben's thick, expressive brush strokes occasionally blur shapes and details, but the vividly colored dreamscapes, filled with wild trees, cloud creatures, and exotic locations, will capture young imaginations and reassure children who, like the young tiger, harbor secret fears of falling asleep. Gillian Engberg