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From School Library Journal

October 6, 2023

PreS-K-It is nighttime, and as a black-haired boy is getting ready for bed, his dad is preparing for work. In this vivid city with a multicultural population, people with all types of occupations busy themselves watering plants, adjusting uniforms, lacing up boots, and kissing goodbye as they depart for work. Downing offers a picture book for preschoolers who appreciate multilayered themes. The art on one side highlights a city with multiple means of transportation and people performing varied activities. People are talking on the phone, running, and practicing the tuba. On the other hand, the book focuses on many jobs people perform at nighttime (a nurse tending to a child at a hospital, a baker mixing ingredients for bread, and a janitor and guard working at a museum). The art is set to portray sequential illustrations combined with full-page and whole-spread illustrations, offering additional pictorial clues about things happening at night and adding to the constant motion of a city that does not sleep. The lines of text are set to a small font that moves around, accompanying the watercolor and digitally touched colored pencil illustrations emphasizing shades of yellow and blue. The storyline is simple, but includes plenty of vocabulary words to enrich emerging readers. VERDICT Like Katie Yamasaki's Dad Bakes, this is a detail-oriented picture book about people who work a different shift in a world that looks a little different and has different rules; and like that book, this will spark curiosity and awe.-Kathia Ibacache

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Horn Book

Starred review from March 1, 2023
While a child gets ready for bed, a father gets ready for work -- as do other night-shift workers in the city. Readers follow the dad (a nurse) and eight others: a taxi driver, a firefighter, an emergency dispatcher, a janitor, a security guard, a hotel manager, an on-location film tech, and a baker. Spreads with multiple panels or apartment windows highlight people at home and at work; in busier scenes the colorfully depicted main characters easily stand out. Nifty details are everywhere, and crisscrossing narratives add tons of fun. Wisely, the quiet text lets the pictures tell the stories, allowing viewers to discover the connections on their own: the hotel manager welcomes a guest whose dog gets loose and runs down the street to the bakery, where firefighters (alerted by the dispatcher) have just put out a fire; an expecting couple hails the taxi driver, and later the nurse tends to new mother and baby, while outside their hospital window the baker holds the lost dog and hails the cab driver, who takes the pup back to its owner, an actor who's on a set with the film tech. Phew! Fittingly, the work-night wraps up with a scene outside the cozy bakery, where each worker, before heading home, can be spotted inside or out. The characters' diversity nicely reflects the big-city setting: the nurse is a Black man, the firefighter is a woman, the dispatcher uses a wheelchair, and the hotel manager wears a hijab. Jennifer M. Brabander

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Booklist

February 15, 2023
Preschool-Grade 3 At nightfall in the city, when children are getting ready to sleep, some grown-ups are preparing to leave for work. They lace their boots, put on their name tags, and say goodbye to their families and pets. Some workers drive taxis, while others have jobs in bakeries, hospitals, or hotels. During an emergency, a dispatcher tells the police and fire fighters where to go next. At the museum, a security guard and a janitor are working all night. But at dawn, the workers put on their jackets and head for home, where their neighbors and their families are just waking up. A quiet text leads viewers through this picture book, but it's the art that is most memorable. Children who are fond of seek-and-find books will particularly enjoy exploring the intricate pictures to find particular characters in different scenes. Created using watercolors, colored pencils, and "digital touches," Downing's illustrations show a sure sense of figure drawing and composition as well as an uncommon sensitivity in using color combinations effectively. A beautiful introduction to the city at night.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from January 23, 2023
In a series of lively, inventive spreads, Downing (Cubs in the Tub) pays homage to workers who take up their posts as much of a city heads for bed, drawing building cutaways of people preparing to venture out. "One person puts on extra layers to stay warm," reads descriptive text, accompanying the image of a figure struggling into red long underwear. First touching on uniforms and transportation, lines next reveal an array of jobs. A baker "mixes flour and yeast for tomorrow's bread." Taxi drivers pick up late fares. A nurse looks on as a father kisses a new baby. Addressing the story directly to readers, she highlights the way the diverse workers' time is turned upside down: "When it is the middle of the night and you need to get up, some people are sitting down to eat." Warm, engaging artwork plays the dark indigo of night off warm, golden interior light. Combining the gravitas of Keeping the City Going with the straightforward charm of The Philharmonic Gets Dressed, Downing offers a gently bustling account of how "all night long, people are awake." Ages 4—8. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary.

From Kirkus

January 1, 2023
From a nurse to an emergency dispatcher, a look at the city dwellers whose work begins when the sun goes down. Reading this book is like looking through a telescope--there are windows on nearly every page; some pages feature rectangular, windowlike vignettes of people at work. On the front cover, a taxi driver is visible through the side window of a cab, with a dog sitting up in the back seat. Above them, on an upper floor, a museum worker is doing some vacuuming, with dinosaur bones in the background. Many of the people can be seen only from a great distance, and the details we learn about them often come from just a few spare sentences: "The museum is closed, but the janitor and security guard are hard at work." Downing's blue-tinged, cozy artwork sometimes makes words almost unnecessary--in this case, the accompanying illustration says it all, a full spread showing the janitor reaching up to dust the nose of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Most of the people who are working late seem to be smiling, and while it's difficult to find a message in the limited text, readers will close the book feeling that there's joy to be found in every job and every schedule. The residents of this urban environment are diverse in skin tone. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Will make readers fall in love with the city depicted within. (Picture book. 3-5)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Horn Book

January 1, 2023
While a child gets ready for bed, a father gets ready for work -- as do other night-shift workers in the city. Readers follow the dad (a nurse) and eight others: a taxi driver, a firefighter, an emergency dispatcher, a janitor, a security guard, a hotel manager, an on-location film tech, and a baker. Spreads with multiple panels or apartment windows highlight people at home and at work; in busier scenes the colorfully depicted main characters easily stand out. Nifty details are everywhere, and crisscrossing narratives add tons of fun. Wisely, the quiet text lets the pictures tell the stories, allowing viewers to discover the connections on their own: the hotel manager welcomes a guest whose dog gets loose and runs down the street to the bakery, where firefighters (alerted by the dispatcher) have just put out a fire; an expecting couple hails the taxi driver, and later the nurse tends to new mother and baby, while outside their hospital window the baker holds the lost dog and hails the cab driver, who takes the pup back to its owner, an actor who's on a set with the film tech. Phew! Fittingly, the work-night wraps up with a scene outside the cozy bakery, where each worker, before heading home, can be spotted inside or out. The characters' diversity nicely reflects the big-city setting: the nurse is a Black man, the firefighter is a woman, the dispatcher uses a wheelchair, and the hotel manager wears a hijab.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)