About the Holiday

As days grow shorter and nights longer, November calls on us to get snuggly and dedicate time to rest. It is aptly time for Sleep Comfort Month, a holiday designed to raise awareness of the importance of quality rest and sleep. In times of flux and chaos, focus on rest and relaxation is more crucial than ever. This month can serve as a reminder that everyone needs and deserves peaceful rest and recuperation time in order to face the ever-changing, curious planet that is our home.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Children’s Books for sharing a copy of Goodnight Sounds with me for review consideration. All opinions on the book are my own.

Review by Dorothy Levine

 Goodnight Sounds

Written by Debbie S Miller | Illustrated by Michelle Jing Chan

Goodnight Sounds is a lyrical bedtime story that invites readers to get cozy and listen closely. The story begins with a child whose home is tucked under the looming light of California’s Golden Gate Bridge. Illustrations depict the girl sitting up in bed, teddy bear in hand, observing the bridge and crashing waves beneath from her bedroom window.

The words of the first page set the scene: “In the cool, quiet, night / fingers of fog spill over the hills…I listen and wait for the sound…”. On the next page the “BAA…ROOOOOOM” of a foghorn stretches across the cozy bedroom, the ‘O’ sound flowing through her window like the wisps of fog to help lull her to sleep. The girl then invites readers into the story, asking “what sound helps you fall asleep?”

Image copyright Michelle Jing Chan, 2024, text copyright Debbie S. Miller, 2024. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

The rest of the story contains follow-up poetic questions, each paired with unique onomatopoeic interpretations of the nighttime sounds: “Is it the trilling of a thousand crickets / wings shivering in the moonlight?” In the corners of this spread, nestled by the crickets are iterations of: “Treeek-treeeek.”

The pages’ settings range from urban to suburban to wilderness, with their accompanying broad range of nighttime sounds—some as large as foghorns and others as tiny as crickets. At the end of the story, Miller returns readers to the first bedtime character, now asleep, with the words: “The sounds of the night are your lullaby.”

Image copyright Michelle Jing Chan, 2024, text copyright Debbie S. Miller, 2024. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

Illustrator Jing Chan depicts a series of serene landscapes, each containing a unique sleeping space (an apartment, a tent, and a camper van, for example). Every picturesque scene also features a unique source of light—a starry sky, a train window, a lamp, string lights, glow-in-the-dark stickers on a wall.

As the nighttime sounds change from outside sources to indoors, so do the illustrations, with a few of the panoramic scenes now taking readers inside a tent (where a grandmother makes a shadow puppet on the wall), a variety of bedrooms (where children fall asleep to the tick-tock of a grandfather clock, the chime of a music box, or the purr of a cat), and other cozy spaces. Along with the richly illustrated array of settings, Jing Chan also shows cultural, racial, and family-structural diversity among the page’s cast of happy sleepers. 

Image copyright Michelle Jing Chan, 2024, text copyright Debbie S. Miller, 2024. Courtesy of Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

Throughout Goodnight Sounds Debbie S. Miller includes onomatopoeia to her lines, offering opportunities for readers to lend their voices to the sounds and inviting them to listen closer to their own surroundings as they settle in for sleep. Her poetic language adds a peaceful rhythm to the book, almost echoing a lullaby. The illustrations and words of the story evoke a sense of both comfort and wonder for the nocturnal world around us.

A joyful addition to both home and library collections, Goodnight Sounds is sure to put young ones to sleep with new soundscapes and landscapes to dream of fondly.

Ages 2 – 5

Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2024 | ISBN 978-168119199

About the Author

Debbie S. Miller is the author of Survival at 40 Below, an NTSA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book; Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights; The Great Serum Race; and Big Alaska. Visit Debbie at debbiemilleralaska.com.

About the Illustrator

Michelle Jing Chan is a queer Chinese American illustrator who grew up in Colorado and lives in the Pacific Northwest. Inspired by nature, cultural folklore, and fantasy, Michelle aspires to illustrate diverse, empowering stories her younger self would have loved. When she’s not drawing, she can be found attempting new recipes, reading, or watching spooky TV shows. Visit Michelle at michellejingchan.com.

Sleep Comfort Month Activities

Reading Goodnight Sounds before bed is a perfect way to celebrate sleep comfort month with children. Other activity ideas include crafting a DIY blanket or pillow together or making up a bedtime song and other creative ideas with the following instructions!

No-Sew Blanket and Pillow

With this craft you and your child can have fun making a kid-size blanket, a cozy cover for a favorite toy or a soft bed for a pet! Children from ages 5 or 6 and up will enjoy helping to tie the tabs. For younger children, using fabric glue to attach the two pieces of fleece or cutting just one piece of fleece allows them to join in the craft fun.

Supplies

• 2 pieces of fleece cut to size for your project: a child’s blanket or pillow, a toy’s blanket, or a pet bed
• Scissors
• Measuring tape
• Poly-fil, cushion insert, or pillow (for child’s pillow or pet bed)
• Fabric glue (optional)

Directions

1. Lay out fleece and measure a size that will make a comfortable blanket for your child, a favorite teddy bear or other sleep buddy, or your pet  
2. Add 3 inches to that measurement on each side for the strips to tie together
3. Cut 2 pieces of fleece
4. With the pieces of fleece together, cut 3-inch long by ¾ -inch wide strips all along each side. 
5. At the corners, cut four tabs (or a 3-inch square) off each side

To Make a Blanket

• Tie the top and bottom strips together on all sides

To Make a Pillow

• Measure two pieces of fleece to fit a pillow or fill with poly-fil
• Add 3 inches to that measurement on each side for the strips to tie together
• Follow main directions above

To Make a Bed for your Pet

1. Measure two pieces of fleece to fit a pillow or fill with poly-fil
2. Add 3 inches to that measurement on each side for the strips to tie together
3. Follow main directions above
4. Tie strips together on three sides
5. Insert pillow, cushion insert, or poly-fil
6. Tie the strips together on the final side

Fun Bedtime Ideas

For more ideas on how to make bedtime an engaging and peaceful transition, here is a list of some fun and silly switch-ups to bedtime routines from Parents with Confidence, a website dedicated to helping parents raise emotionally healthy children.

50 Bedtime Activities to Calm and Connect

You can purchase Goodnight Sounds at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop (to support your local independent bookstore)

Picture Book Review