Hello, friends! Our book today is Sleep, My Baby, written by Dr. Lena Allen-Shore and Jacques J. M. Shore, and illustrated by Jessica Courtney-Tickle, an enormously sweet lullaby from parent to child in board book form.

This bedtime serenade, based on a lullaby written by the author’s mother, opens on a mother carrying her baby upstairs in preparation for sleep. From there, the windows of a neighborhood are shown, with more mother-and-child pairs in different skin tones. The lullaby and art then travels the world, showing more cultures and types of caregiver-child bonds, including fathers, multi-generational, blended, and LGBTQ+ families. At last, the story circles back to the first mother and child, showing that there is nothing more universal than the love between parent and child.

Touching and tender. As the author explains in the forward and afterward, Allen-Shore – a multi-talented creator and educator, as well as a Holocaust survivor – created “Sleep, My Baby” as a lullaby for her sons while endeavoring to promote unity and human compassion. The art and simple structure of the text in this interpretation do a lovely job of combining all these themes, creating a bedtime board book that is perfect for the littlest bookworms and their caregivers. While the tune of “Sleep, My Baby” is not familiar (though it can be found online), the lyrics still work fine in spoken-word form, and the diverse illustrations in soft, dreamy twilight colors are soothing yet packed with detail. The length is perfect for bedtime, and JJ and I both loved it. This one was a treat, and we highly recommend it – Baby Bookworm approved!

(Note: A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)