The Baby's Bedtime Book

by Kay Chorao

Presents twenty-seven traditional rhymes, poems, and lullabies for bedtime from a variety of sources.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Childrens, Nursery Rhymes

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Kay Chorao is a children's writer and illustrator.

She was born Ann McKay Sproat in Elkhart, Indiana, United States, into a middle-class, suburban family. She loved and was encouraged to draw at a young age. She attended Laurel School in Shaker Heights, OH. Chorao went to Wheaton College, where in 1958 she earned a Bachelor of Arts in art history. After that, Chorao pursued her graduate study at Chelsea School of Art from 1958 to 1959.

Chorao got married and had three sons before moving to New York with her family. From 1966 to 1968, she studied book illustration at School of Visual Arts in New York.

Besides writing self-illustrated children's books, Chorao has been the illustrator for many books by Jane Yolen, Judith Viorst, Jan Wahl, and Marjorie Sharmat.

Reviews

[Lady reading under the Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kay Chorao's illustrations are always lovely, and her choice of poems, lullabies, and rhymes have been a joy to read. This is a beautiful book to enjoy together in the evenings throughout the preschool years.

[Lynette Caulkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our children absolutely LOVED having these poems read to them! I had to dig around to find the exact title so I can order one for our first grandchild.

[PottWab Regional Library]

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[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed lifelike coloured sketches of familiar classics and beautiful unknown beauties by well known authors like Rudyard Kipling Alfred Lord Tennyson. A lullaby book extraordinaire!!

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I hate it when reviewers give half stars, but I can't seem to get around it here. The illustrations are lovely, a strong 4 stars, possibly even 5 stars. The lullabies and poems are spotty. There are a good number of famous poems included, a few poems apparently in translation that were new to me and that I very much enjoyed, and some traditional lullabies. The poems that pulled my rating down to three stars were mostly the few unattributed poems that I didn't recognize as being traditional English-language lullabies. Maybe the illustrator wrote these? I don't know. But one of the poems attempted to use "I guess" as a rhyme for "shepherdess". Seriously? I sat there staring at the page for quite a while, imagining the brain that does such a thing, before I could shake it off and turn the page. But all in all, this is a book I'd like to own if I had children.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poetry in the book is really good! It's not stuff you hear every day - some of it is by famous writers such as Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Louis Stevenson and others, creations of Chorao herself. But everything flows seamlessly and again, has an old-fashioned feel to it.

You will enjoy the poetry and illustrations in this books just as much as your kids will. William will sit through a reading of one of these books front to back, and they are quite long. You can easily just pick a few poems to read one night and continue on through each book that way, but your child may enjoy it so much you'll finish the entire book in one reading.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

My parents read this collection of bedtime poems over and over to me as a child, so admittedly I am biased in favor of this wonderful book. The illustrations are colorfully and whimsically rendered, and contains within its pages a wide array of poems from multiple cultures (German, Indian, Japanese, to name a few).

My only concern is the religiosity contained in just one or two of the poems which might make the book inappropriate to read whole to the classroom, though most excerpts are more than deserving to be shared.

[Margaret Chind · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful images and full of delightful and lovely poems and lullabies. Many I know by heart and love. Want a copy for our shelves. Too long to read in it's entirety every night but great to pick a few. If only it had a ribbon marker like The Springs of Joy.

[Matt Vagts]

Poetry #3
This book is about poetry and lullaby poetry. This book is for babies and younger children. In the book one page is the lullaby or poem and then on the opposite page is a picture to represent what the poem or lullaby is saying. Some of the poems are; Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; Rock-a-bye, Baby: and Sleep, Baby, Sleep!

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A happy find at a non-profit book sale. I'm giving it to granddaughter for Christmas.