Yuyi Morales is the illustrator of Kathleen Krull’s Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez, whose accolades include a Pura Belpré Award and a Christopher Medal, as well as the Pura Belpré Award-winning Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes. Born and raised in Mexico, she now lives in northern California.
Gorgeous and unusual illustrations, each one taking up the whole page with the story text over part of the picture, and lovely sentiments of a mother’s love for her daughter. I read this illustrator's book Los Gatos Black on Halloween, and loved it and enjoyed the English-Spanish language story. This book has a separate Spanish language edition; I would have loved some Spanish in this English language story as well. In the illustrations I particularly loved the stars, in all the places they appeared.
Absolutely gorgeous, luminous illustrations make this an outstanding book! The story is about Mother Sky who tries to get Little Night ready to play in the sky, but mischievous Little Night loves to hide. Wow, I loved it!
Mother Sky gets her daughter ready for the nighttime in this lovely tale, chasing after and finding her, as she continually runs off to hide. Behind the hills, inside a bat's cave, in a blueberry field, Little Night finds plenty of places to conceal herself, but Mother Sky always manages to find her, eventually succeeding in bathing her (in falling stars), dressing her (in a dress crocheted from clouds), and untangling her hair (with a shiny comb). Now Little Night is ready to play with her Moon ball...
An innovative recreation of the bedtime story, Yuyi Morales' Little Night imagines a mother preparing her child for nighttime play, rather than the more traditional sleep. The seek-and-find element of the tale, in which mother always finds her baby, will be quite familiar to picture-book readers, although it has a particularly magical feeling here. Just as magical, the artwork - with its deep, vivid colors, and humorous little details - will leave the reader enchanted! I loved the way Mother Sky's braids were constantly sticking out behind or above her, almost like antennae feeling for something. I loved Morales' dark, restful palette, so suitable for a nighttime story. And I loved the emotional attachment between mother and daughter, that is so evident in these illustrations. My favorite scene is probably the one, toward the end, in which Mother Sky fixes three hairpins - Venus, Mercury and Jupiter - in Little Night's hair. Just beautiful!
Wow, what a beautifully illustrated and engaging children's book!
This is a fascinating short story about Mother Sky and Little Night, getting ready for the end of the day. It is very accessible for children because it depicts familiar activities of bath time, getting dressed, combing hair - all accompanied by the playful interaction of hide-and-seek as Little Night tries to delay each activity. What makes it special is how the illustrations show you these are all metaphors for the daylight ending and transitioning to nighttime. The colors and flowing lines are gorgeous on every page, and help to tell the story very well. Little Night has brightly glowing planets for hairpins, and plays with the full moon as if it were a ball. I don't know if most children will catch this, but Little Night is actually getting ready to stay up all night, because she is Night, after all. The cadence and progression of the book reads a lot like a bedtime book, which is useful for getting kids into the bedtime mood, even though the main character won't actually be going to sleep!
Major kudos to the author for representing these protagonists as characters of color. The Little Night character was a very dark-skinned child with kinky hair - a much-needed representation as these attributes are rarely seen in popular children's books. Of course, her depiction flows naturally from the idea that the child is "night", but another illustrator could have gone a completely different direction.
Just when you thought i might have gone and tried to grow up on ya'all i have another wonderful picture book recommendation for everyone to check out: Little Night by Pura Belpre Award winning author and artist Yuyi Morales. Little Night begins at the end of the long day as Mother Sky fills a tub with falling stars and calls, "Bath time for Little Night!" Little Night answers from afar, "Can't come, I am hiding and you have to find me, Mama. Find me now!" "Hmmm," Mother Sky looks down a rabbit hole. She puts her cheek on the darkest sand. When she peeks behind the hills, whom does she see? After finding her, Mother Sky bathes her and unfolds her dress crocheted of clouds but again Little Night runs away to hide. Looking behind trees and in bat caves, after dinner and all through the night mother and child play their games. Ravens, blueberries, fireflies, moths and stars all figure into this bedtime story which is truly playtime for Little Night. Illustrated with Morales's lovely, and vibrant paintings in deep shades of blues, reds, mauves, and indigos makes this the perfect evening tale.
This is a favorite of my newest daughter, who is desperate for books that show characters that look like her, i.e. little girls with brown skin. Every night she asks for this book and I am happy to oblige.
This fact won't apply to many families out there, but book's flow and rhythm makes it easy to translate into Amharic, my daughter's language, which makes for a soothing bedtime read.
Each page depicts a little girl, who is the night, hiding from her mother the sky. She wants to be found, but plays hard to get, all the while Mother and Daughter go through a bedtime routine that is enchanting and beautifully painted.
We love Little Night's (or Tinish Mata in Amharic) dark dark skin, how her drink of milk from the Milky Way shows up on her upper lip. How her mama calls for hair time and Tinish Mata sits in her lap to have her hair twisted up.
This is a book brown girls can relate to. The poetic prose is lovely, the word playing with nighttime and sky themes tying into a mother daughter relationships is brilliant. The world needs more books like this.
With soft, soothing colors and a whimsical story, I think this would be a perfect bedtime read. The Little Night character is adorably mischievous and the Mother Sky character is nurturing and playful. The story seems to end a bit abruptly, but otherwise it's a fun story to read aloud. We really enjoyed reading this book together.
Little Night is a simple book about a mother getting her daughter ready. She bathes, dresses, and feeds Little Night, each time having to find find her where she's hiding. The book has the most beautiful illustrations I have ever seen. They really capture the beauty of dusk and night - and of the special relationship between a mother and daughter.
My daughter and I read this book every night and just adore it!
SO GOOD! Gorgeous, sweet, lovely bedtime story. Mama and Little Night are going through their bedtime routine, and with each step Little Night hides and tries to put off bedtime just a little. It reminds me a lot of I Just Want to Say Good Night and when we rotate our PJ story time books I definitely want to add this one!
I read this to our whole school (Prep - Gr6) as part of the Global Read Aloud in 2019. The kids enjoyed it but not as much as Yuyi's other books. They did make text connections to our work on fairytales, myths and legends ... especially creation stories.
Little Night, written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales, is a bedtime story book that captivates readers with its delightful story and magnificent illustrations. The text is light-hearted and warm. Readers feel the genuine and loving relationship between the mother, Mother Sky, and her daughter, Little Night. Little Night won both the 2008 American Library Association Notable Book Award (ALAN) and the 2008 Golden Kite Award. The ALAN is awarded to children’s books that are especially commendable in quality. According to the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), the committee identifies books that exhibit “venturesome creativity.” Morales provides this creativity with her playful hide-and-seek tale set in the night sky. Stars fill the bathtub, planets become hairpins, and the moon ball is bounced encouraging children’s imagination and engagement. The Golden Kite Award is given to outstanding children’s books in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, picture book text and picture book illustration. Little Night was awarded the Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration. The vibrant paintings and use of color in Little Night make it an obvious choice for the Golden Kite Award. Morales applied deep reds, purples, and indigos to depict the night sky. The red shades are used earlier in the book as the sun sets and rich purples and blues are used as the night deepens. Morales’ use of shape and light add realism and warmth to Mother Sky and Little Night’s features. Little Night is an excellent read-aloud choice for primary students. My first-grade students were completely engaged with the text and illustrations. I love the way young students accept impossible ideas such as a hide-and-seek game in the sky as completely plausible. As I turned each page, my students made sounds of approval and excitement as the colors and images changed throughout the text. It didn’t take long until they were searching for Little Night on each page. “There she is,” one boy said. “I found her” said another student pointing to the page. Uniquely engaging and beautifully illustrated, Little Night will charm young readers for years to come.
Yuyi Morales plays with the getting-ready-for-bed story as Mother Sky tries to coax Little Night into a bathtub of stars. The sun sets, and the sky cools and darkens Mother Sky’s skirts as she bathes and dresses a child more interested in playing hide-and-seek.
Little Night hides in places wherein night would blend, with animals and hues like a little night. The color scheme moves from warm sunset reds, oranges, pinks to cooling and harder-surfaced reds to deepening into purples and blues. The evidence of brushwork is broad and sweeping, lending to the expansive quality of a tale set in the sky.
It is lovely to consider how the greatness of the sky and the night participate in each relatively small beings of the reader. Little Night appears both human child-size and large in the scale of villages, but Mother Sky is always large, but not looming on the page. The definitive thematic images are of Mother Sky’s domestic chores, seeking Little Night, and her holding Little Night on her lap. She is a comforting, caring presence. She’s also rendered quite beautiful.
Little Night is impish, and the whole interplay between Mother and Night is very sweet. It is also magical (shocking, I know), but the “dress crotched from clouds” is perfect, and that the “hair pins are stars,” named as they are placed in Little Night’s hair.
Little Night is probably an obvious choice for bedtime, and it is indeed one to nestle in with, but Little Night is not the only impish figure. The author isn’t putting Little Night to bed—it’s nighttime, it’s time for the child to be waking, to be bathed and dressed, fed and groomed, and given the moon as a ball with which to run out and play.
Of course we all have times for sleeping and times for running wild and in sport. Little Night is for both of those times. ~L (omphaloskepsis)
A stunning bilingual story by award winning author and illustrator Yuyi Morales. As the long day comes to an end, Mother Sky fills a tub with falling stars and calls, "Bath time for Little Night!" Little Night answers from afar, "Can't come. I am hiding and you have to find me, Mama. Find me now!" Where could Little Night be? Down a rabbit hole? In a blueberry field? Among the stripes of bees? Exquisitely painted and as gentle as Little Night's dress crocheted from clouds, this is a story to treasure. With a bilingual text in both English and Spanish, Little Night Nochecita by Yuyi Morales is a sweet story every child can enjoy.
Notes Yuyi Morales has written and/or illustrated numerous books, including Just A Minute, a Pura Belpre Medal winner, and Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez, a Pura Belpre Honor Book. Her work has also earned her the Jane Addams, Americas, and Christopher awards. Born in Mexico, Yuyi now lives in the San Francisco area.
Subject: Bedtime -- Juvenile fiction. Mothers and daughters -- Juvenile fiction. Night -- Juvenile fiction. Sky -- Juvenile fiction. Hora de acostarse -- Novela juvenil. Madres e hijas -- Novela juvenil. Noche -- Novela juvenil. Cielo -- Novela juvenil.
It is common knowledge that Yuyi Morales is a color genius and a word magician, and with Little Night, she does it again. Yuyi's color palette is imaginative, unique and vibrant. Her colors are so deep. So sparkly. I am convinced they will glow in the dark if I were to turn off the light. I LOVE her combination of magenta and red with turquoise and purple. her compositions are magical. My eye flows over the pages, dancing from one spread to the next. Yuyi's text is lyrical and soothing, perfect for a bed-time story, yet the the STARS of this story are the characters. Mother Sky is warm, round, loving and nurturing. She's the type of mother I wish upon everyone. Little Night is spirited, sweet and a mischievous. Their relationship is filled with emotion and tenderness. I recommend Little Night to everyone. It's just the soothing, loving story kids need to fall into a peaceful sleep under the stars-Venus on the east, Mercury on the west, and Jupiter above!
Little Night by Yuyi Morales is a short tale about Mother Sky and her playful daughter Little Night. Throughout the story, Mother Sky goes about her “motherly” routine of taking care of her daughter which includes; bathing, feeding, dressing, and combing her hair. All of these events happen in a “God” like manner. The Milky Way for instance is nothing more than nourishment for Little Night. The God’s in this book are definitely of Mexican descent. There are also numerous illustrations of buildings which reflect the culture as well. I particularly like how the tale easily accounts for many different natural phenomenons; sky, darkness, changing of the day from night, etc. I would have expected different names used to describe the planets, but the Greek/Roman names probably serve more as a common point of reference for the books English speaking audience.
Enchanting! This is everything a picture book for babies and toddlers and preschoolers should be! Mother Sky leads her daughter Little Night through her bedtime routine of taking a bath, putting on pajamas, brushing her hair, etc. But it's Mother Sky, so Little Night bathes in falling stars, dresses in clouds, and gets stars in her hair. Little Night hides at each step along the way, telling her mama that she'll have to find her first. And, of course, Mama finds Little Night each time.
As always, Yuyi Morales' illustrations are magical. I tried to describe them for this review, but words fail! This is a book that belongs with Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.
(Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher at an American Library Association Annual Conference. I was not required to write a positive review. Thank you, Roaring Brook Press!)
I love this book, the storyline, the characters, the interplay of love. The illustrations are just wonderful. I was very moved by the author's dedication and notes in the back of the book. Age Range: 2 - 6 years Grade Level: Preschool - 1 This review is of the Roaring Brook Press; First Edition (April 3, 2007). Note: a bilingual edition is scheduled for June 28th 2016 by Square Fish! Little Night/Nochecita Mi nieto loves Niño Wrestles the World as do I. Yuyi Morales is a three-time PURA BELPRÉ winner.
Little Night is a 2008 Americas Award Nominated book by Yuyi Morales. There is also a Spanish version of the book entitled, Nochecita. I read the English version of the book. First off, Yuyi Morales’ illustrations are simply phenomenal. The dreamy, flowy pictures match the book’s theme about bedtime. Mother Sky plays hide and seek with Little Night as part of their bedtime ritual. This would be a great bedtime read aloud book for young children for English or Spanish speakers since there are 2 versions. It is interesting that the choice was not to combine in a bilingual book, but to have a separate English book and a separate Spanish book. To me, it seems to be just a fun read or read aloud book filled with must see illustrations.
Morales, Yuyi. Little Night. New Milford, CT: Roaring Brook, 2007. Print. Ages 8-10. Little Night is a book about how "Little Night" is trying to hide from her mom and they are pretty much playing hide and go seek to be able to find each other while trying to also prepare dinner as well. This wasn't a very fun one to read, because the pictures to me, personally I didn't really enjoy that much, but some students might love it. Personally, I feel that this book isn't that really exciting and the graphics aren't that good either. I don't think that I can really relate to this book other than the fact that I used to play hide and go seek a lot as a child and really realize how much I miss it when I read about it.
When Mother Sky tries to give her daughter Little Night a bath, Little Night plays a fansical game of hide and seek.
Always knowing where she could find her child, she looks for her in a loving way. Reaching out in the miles and miles of night sky, when she locates her child, she baths her and combs her hair, making swirls fascinted by three barets.
The barets anchor Little Night as they provide bright light of Venus, Mercury and Jupiter.
There is a magical, whimsical, wonderful air of this book. Riding the night sky, playing with a lighted moon ball mother and daughter unite in a star studded evening.
Mother Sky says is searching for her Little Night who is not yet ready to be found. Little Night leads her mother in a game of hide-and-seek all across the country side. Eventually, Mother Sky catches up with Little Night and as they play catch with the moon, night has finally fallen over the country side. I enjoyed how simple and sweet this story was, and also the cultural inspiration. The illustrations were very beautiful and contributed to the story very well. I would include this book in my classroom library along with several other books that focus on stories and folk tales from other cultures.
Little Night is another beautifully illustrated book by Yuyi Morales. Her illustrations are so lovely, and in this book she uses lots of dark purples, browns and reds to depict the night sky. The story is about Mother Sky and her child Little Night as they play together. Mother Sky is very loving and playful with her child. It's a very lighthearted story, but Morales dedicated the story to two Mexican mothers she knows who are fighting poverty and illness to raise their children. This is a lovely story for younger readers.
Yuyi Morales' illustrations and words flow together through the pages of this spirit filled nocturnal tale of Mother Sky and her daughter, Little Night. Morales insight to beauty, love and nature is evident when reading and viewing the warm purples, reds, and browns along with the fullness of the mother and daughter in this picture book. This is a beautiful book to put any child (or adult) to sleep by.
What a beautiful book to read to a child at bedtime. While we are getting ready for bed, the mischevious Little Night keeps Mother Sky busy with a game of hide-and-seek while she tries to avoid getting ready for her day.
Yuyi Morales's story is perfectly complimented by her pastel illustrations. The book is truly a work of art. As you are reading, Mother Sky's skirt transforms from the flaming colors of a sunset to the soft violets and blues of night.
A poetic bilingual (Spanish) bedtime story. Mother Sky puts her playful daughter, Little Night, to sleep, but only after many games of hide and seek. Strong deep colors with a sprinkling of star light set the mood for night, and the playful affectionate patter of mother and daughter speak of unconditional love, as eternal as the night sky. A lovely book for bedtime sharing, whether the reader speaks Spanish or not.
Little Night, by Yuyi Morales, shines with hues of the colorful night sky. The story, about a little girl, the personification of night, who wakes up when the rest of the world goes to sleep will delight kids with it's topsy-turvy viewpoint. As Mother Sky plays a game of hide-n-seek with Little Night, the girl gets ready for her day...errr... her night. Charming story and gorgeous art.
When I say this book is gorgeous, I don't mean it looks merely pretty, or even beautiful. I mean the colors are rich, the lines vivid, the faces real. I would say that the text is sweet, but that's like saying gold or honey is "kinda yellow". Honey isn't half as sweet as this book, anyway.
If you can only buy one bedtime book this year, make it this one. You won't regret it.