Good Night, Earth
Good Night, Earth
by Linda Bondestam
Translated from the Swedish by Galit Hasan-Rokem
Yonder: Restless Books for Young Readers | Ages 3–6
From the savanna to the city to outer space, celebrated Nordic children’s book illustrator Linda Bondestam offers a charming peek at the many ways we settle in for sleep, with gorgeous, dreamlike illustrations full of offbeat humor.
Hardcover • ISBN: 9781632062864
Publication date: Apr 27, 2021
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About the Book
Discover the bedtime routines of animals all over the world through the eyes of an alien family on a faraway planet. Little monkey needs his mama to play at least seventy-three songs on the ukulele to fall asleep. A meerkat family enjoys some stretches together as the sun goes down, while baby sloth is a bedtime expert—she’s already snoozing soundly in the trees. Die-cut pages invite little ones to help new animal friends get cozy under the covers.
With unconventional illustrations full of wit and tenderness, Good Night, Earth is a sweetly silly exploration of how all kinds of creatures find peaceful and playful ways to end the day.
View the Illustrations
Praise for Good Night, Earth
“Inventive book design and shifting perspectives add cozy surprises to this bedtime snoozer…. In Hasan-Rokem’s translation from the Swedish, the text is poetic, sly, and funny…. Along with adding sly anthropomorphic touches to the rest of the cast, [Bondestam] caps the nighttime scenes with one final one of a comically frazzled family of owls barely getting through a sunrise supper of croissants and hot chocolate before collapsing. Parents of younger children will definitely relate. A droll and imaginative addition to the crepuscular corpus.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“In Good Night, Earth, Finnish artist Linda Bondestam's funny and beautiful picture book (translated from the Swedish by Galit Hasan-Rokem), a couple of lumpy green creatures from a faraway planet spy on the baffling bedtime habits of Earthlings. Bondestam's mixed-media illustrations... are wonderfully detailed, and she picked unusual creatures (an axolotl, a tarsier, those meerkats) to depict, giving them all vivid expressions. Some look demonic, some worried, some deeply suspicious, some (the kiwis) slightly crazed. It's the eyes. They all have great, expressive eyes.”
—Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Told from the perspective of a green alien family on a faraway planet, Bondestam’s endearing solo debut offers a peek into the fictional bedtime routines of animals from around the world…. Offbeat humor permeates the text… and accompanies Bondestam’s quirky, multipatterned collage-style illustrations. The penultimate bedtime routine will resonate with parental readers, while the final spreads offer a last laugh for young ones.”
“What a fun, quirky bedtime story!…The facial expressions on the animals have very human fatigue written all over them, which will delight human parents…. The aliens are adorable, and provide a second story while the reader waits to see what happens with each animal family. Half-pages interspersed throughout allow the fun of a lift-the-flap surprise. The language... is poetic, whimsical, sometimes beautiful. Linking it all together is the gorgeous art.”
—Stephanie Tournas, Youth Services Book Review, Starred Review
“In this sweet and beautifully designed small book, a little alien peers through a telescope at all the bedtime rituals on Earth. Using mixed media, Bondestam creates rich, layered illustrations featuring animals all across the globe…. Delicate pen-and-ink applied over the colors give the animals very expressive faces…. [I]t neatly resembles Margaret Wise Brown’s classic Good Night Moon, and fans of that book will appreciate the contrast.”
—Susan Harari, Youth Services Book Review, Starred Review
“Animals around the world are headed to bed in this beautifully illustrated book, which adds an odd twist of quirkiness to make it an intriguing read…. The animals are depicted in a wonderful artistic manner, which adds a dash of sophistication. In other words, these are simply well done and beautiful in their style and flair.”
—Tonja Drecker, Bookworm for Kids
Praise for the Swedish Edition
“With each reading, the book has expanded. It really deserves a place on bookshelves and nightstands…. Respect both for the genre and for the small child as a reader permeates this captivating, stylish, and fully formed work of art.”
—Mia Österlund, Hufvudstadsbladet
“That Linda Bondestam is a master at drawing fantastic creatures is known, among other things, from Animals No One Has Seen Except Us.... Good Night, Earth shows that Bondestam has the ability to create her own literary universe in both word and image, where the image is really allowed to speak.”
—Ylva Perera, Svenska Yle
About the Author and Illustrator
© Niklas Sandström
Linda Bondestam is an illustrator based in Helsinki. A graduate of Kingston University in London, she has illustrated dozens of children's books that have been translated into more than ten languages. One of the most celebrated illustrators in the Nordic countries, Linda was awarded the Snöbollen for Swedish Picture Book of the Year in 2016 and the Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize in 2017 for Djur som ingen sett utom vi (Animals that no one has seen except us). She was also nominated for the August Prize in 2020 for Mitt bottenliv (My life at the bottom) and is a six-time ALMA nominee, among various other awards. Good Night, Earth is her authorial debut.
About the Translator
© Ido Peretz
Galit Hasan-Rokem is a folklore scholar, translator, and Professor Emerita in the Department of Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She continues to conduct research, supervise graduate students, and translate poetry, mainly from the Swedish into Hebrew. She is the author of many books and articles and a published poet, as well as the founding editorial board member and cultural editor of Palestine-Israel Journal, the coeditor of Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore, and the associate editor of Proverbium.
THIS BOOK IS PUBLISHED WITH SUPPORT FROM FILI
Book Details
Hardcover: $20 • ISBN: 9781632062864
Publication date: Apr 27, 2021
8.25" x 5.85" • 48 pages
Children's Fiction—Picture Book / Swedish / Bedtime / Humor • Ages 3–6
Territory: World English, Audio
Books by Linda Bondestam
by Linda Bondestam
Translated from the Swedish by A. A. Prime
Yonder: Restless Books for Young Readers | Ages 4–7
Wake up, Mommy and Daddy! The sun is rising, the stars are shining, and friends all over the universe are jumping out of bed to greet the day.
Hardcover ISBN: 9781632063830
Publication date: Apr 15, 2025