Night Night, Norman

It's Cute But Peculiar

I'm of two minds about this book, though I will go ahead and say I liked it.

On the one hand, it's a cute book about the friendship between a girl and her horse with some cartoon-level shenanigans thrown in for laughs. I think a child who loves horses would enjoy having this book read to them at bedtime.

On the other hand, this book has a few flaws. The writing style is a bit hard to follow when characters are thinking, as there are no italics or quotation marks; if you do voices when reading to children, you'll have to be careful. The art doesn't always portray exactly what the story says (for example, Norman uses his nose to push something but the art shows him using a hoof instead), though it looks aesthetically pleasing. And for some unknown reason this girl who looks very young does not have any parents mentioned and seemingly lives alone. Would a child notice these things? I'm not sure. But it does give me pause.

Overall, I think this book is cute enough to warrant four stars, but I'm not sure if children who aren't very fond of horses would like it.