Though I was long ago (like, on day one) over the nightly battle that was part of our bedtime routine, I never, ever tired of the snuggly part, where we wrapped up and read as much as possible before admitting it was time for lights out. And I’m never tired, either, of solid, sweet children’s books that allow me to read in a soft, calm, sleep-inducing voice.

Switching On the Moon is a poetry anthology gathered by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters, with sweetly fuzzy illustrations by G. Brian Karas. It includes some sixty poems, but don’t expect nursery rhymes here–you’ll find work
from Alfred, Lord Tennyson so your kid can get her Classics on, Children’s Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman, and even Sylvia Plath. (It’s okay, this is pre-Bell Jar).

Switching On has poems that are lovely, silly, wistful, and above all, calming. There are bedtime poems, rainy day poems and brushing teeth poems–and even a house favorite, for the sleepy mermaids among us:

Waves will rock you
Whales will sing you,
Starfish a night-light
Will bring you.
Hush, deep diver
Shush, shell keeper
Be your mother’s finny sleeper.

–Barbara

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