Despite the title, a cheerful rhyming text opens with morning in the forest, as couplets introduce flora, fauna, and other natural elements: “Good morning, bird. / Sing your song. / Good morning, stream. / Hum along.” Bucci’s multimedia illustrations, composed of dense brushstrokes of thick color to shape cartoonish forest creatures, portray each scene in a gentle, humorous manner and highlight specific parts of the animals. The porcupine, for example, with spiky quills and huge, wide eyes, is described as looking “lively,” while the turtle is invited to come out of its shell. As the sun goes down, the color palette changes and the text shifts to describing the forest dwellers going to sleep. More animals are added to the group as they all wind down for the night. The final image features a human adult and child, reading at night in a tent, making this book an appropriate accompaniment to an outdoor evening or a regular nighttime routine. Though there’s not much new here, animal-loving little ones might warm to this forest-themed bedtime read.

Another riff on Goodnight Moon, this one is set in a forest. The opening rhyme sets the scene. “Good morning, forest. / Rise and shine! / Good morning, maple, / Oak and pine.” The text welcomes, in turn, an assemblage of forest flora, fauna, and landscape elements to a new day: deer, bird, stream, flowers, cricket, porcupine, ferns, turtle, and skunk. The creatures play until the end of day, when a hush falls over the forest and it’s time to sleep. The illustrations are eye-catching, with darkly saturated colors applied in painterly strokes that extend off of the page. The images appear as if shellacked or polished on the glossy paper, and they gently exaggerate the features of the animals; all have wide, pop eyes (even the cricket), and the porcupine’s quills and beaver’s buck teeth are humorously hyperbolic. The ending, which features an adult and child inside a lit tent reading a book, is a nice touch. “Time to sleep! / All creatures do. / Good night, forest. / Good night, you.” However, although all the ingredients work well enough together, there is little about the book that helps it to rise above the rest and should be considered only in situations where there is an ache for another bedtime book. Good for sharing one on one, this is a pleasant bedtime story for those who don’t already have enough. (Picture book. 4-7)