Publishers Weekly calls Allison Wortche’s NIGHT TREASURE a “luminous” and “gently exhilarating nighttime journey” in starred review
★ Night Treasure
by Allison Wortche, illus. by Alison Farrell. (Knopf.)
In this luminous, sweetly conspiratorial tale by Wortche (Bear in the Air) and Farrell (The Boo-Boos of Bluebell Elementary), bedtime rules bend in the name of adventure. Trapped inside all day by rain, young Quinn valiantly tries to undertake an indoor treasure hunt, but “inside was small and Quinn knew every corner.” When the rain clears before bedtime, Dad offers a delicious rebellion: a nighttime out-of-doors treasure hunt. Slipping outerwear over their pajamas, the two, who are portrayed with light brown skin, head into the blue-cast night, rendered in shadowy shapes and dense matte textures of gouache, collage, and charcoal. Streetlights “blink, blink, blink,” Quinn senses nocturnal animals all around them, and they soon enter a park, where a serpentine path opens up on the page like a treasure map. At Daddy’s invitation, Quinn leads a treasure hunt that ends in a carpet of acorns underneath a huge autumnal oak. The two stuff their pockets, and Quinn is giddy with the feeling that “no one else had ever/ been awake so late/ wandered so far/ made such a discovery.” As this gently exhilarating nighttime journey winds down, a glimpse at the glittering sky leads to Quinn’s realization that there’s more than one kind of treasure: those one can pocket, and those beyond reach that fill one with wonder. Ages 3–7.