I'm a real fan of Deb's blog because she recommends books for young children now on a daily basis through SOLSC. Ruth also suggests books in her blog when she comes across a good read for her children. These are tried and true recommendations.
I also check http://www.amazon.com/ for suggestions and customer reviews. I found a fairly new Cynthia Rylant picture book called long night moon, illustrated by Mark Siegel. I was attracted to it because somewhere I read that each month of the year has a special name for its full moon. Rylant took the names of the 12 moons from the Native Americans. I ordered it for my granddaughter and just read it this weekend!! It's lovely in word and art.
Night pictures appear throughout the book, but are friendly, warm, and inviting because of all the shadows of deer, rabbits, birds, an owl, lightning bugs, squirrels, trees, lighted house windows, rain, snow, and a mother and child at the end. It's a perfect bedtime book.
The story is told in free verse with great examples of alliteration, similes, metaphors, and personfication. My favorite names of the full moons are the names for May, the flower moon and December, the long night moon who "waits and waits" and is "your friend." Rylant has a gentle way of describing the important things in life.
