Nighttime Symphony

by Timbaland, Christopher Myers, Kaa Illustration (Illustrator)

Overview

The sounds of the city at night create a lively lullaby in this melodious bedtime story from superstar producer and musician Timbaland, Caldecott Honor–winning illustrator Christopher Myers, and Kaa Illustration!

hey there, darling baby child,
you’re safe in here though the storm is wild
the streetlights glow through dark so deep
but safe in sound you’ll go to sleep

As a little boy gets ready for bed, the sounds of a wild storm echo around him, lulling him to sleep. From the crash of thunder to the pitter-patter of raindrops to the beat of passing cars, the music of the city creates a cozy bedtime soundtrack.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442412088
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	219,779
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Timbaland is a multi-platinum Grammy Award–winning producer and artist. His indelible imprint has stamped countless recordings with successful and legendary artists such as Justin Timberlake, Aaliyah, Madonna, Missy Elliott, One Republic, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and many others. In 2006 he founded his music label, Mosley Music Group, and was also the producer for the hit TV series Empire. Timbaland currently lives in Florida with his family. Nighttime Symphony is his first book for children.

Christopher Myers is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books. He won a Caldecott Honor for his illustrations in Harlem, and has received three Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards. Myers has illustrated many books written by his father, award-winning author Walter Dean Myers. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Kaa Illustration is a studio based in Ho Chi Minh City comprised of illustrators Phung Nguyen Quang and Huynh Kim Lien. Their stunning, vibrant illustrations are inspired by the folk culture of Vietnam and Asia. Visit them at KaaIllustration.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/18/2019

Sophisticated nighttime spreads by Myers (Wings) and Kaa Illustration accompany this lullaby about a stormy city night by rapper Timbaland, making his debut, and Myers. The group reimagines the scary sounds of a storm as an energetic symphony for a child watching out his window. An African-American father holds his young son as rain spatters against the boy’s bedroom windows: “Hey there, darling baby child,/ you’re safe in here/ though the storm is wild.” The boy is uncertain, his hand around his father’s wrist, but the father puts the boy to bed, “safe in sound.” As the narration continues to reassure (“Do you hear the raindrops tap/ upon the windows of your nap?”), glittering musical notes appear across the dark sky outside. Meter stays tight (“Radios sing in every home,/ steady like the city’s metronome”) until, after a clap of thunder, the verse halts to speak words of comfort: “The angels too/ are musicians.” Brilliant golds, slate grays, and bright vermilion show passersby, a parade of umbrellas, and an elegant cityscape, and the sleek aesthetic gives the city’s wet streets and glowing windows all the surprising glamor of a thumping storm. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Timbaland's rhyming text is musical both in content and feel, the words beating out a rhythm as a father speaks comfortingly to his child. . . . The digital illustrations feature saturated colors—bright reds and yellows especially—that brighten up every rainy page, making the storm anything but dreary.

Shelf Awareness

Through rhyming couplets, an African American father teaches his son to look at a nighttime rainstorm in a positive manner instead of being frightened. . . . This optimistic poem has the ability to turn a potentially scary bedtime into an enjoyable, relaxing experience.

Booklist

Through rhyming couplets, an African American father teaches his son to look at a nighttime rainstorm in a positive manner instead of being frightened. . . . This optimistic poem has the ability to turn a potentially scary bedtime into an enjoyable, relaxing experience.

Booklist

05/01/2019

PreS–As a storm rages outside, a Black father soothes his young son by helping him to find beauty in the sounds of the storm. In this charming poem, Timbaland, Myers, and Kaa Illustration join forces to bring the music of the night to life. Full-page spreads of rich, digitally rendered illustrations mix harmoniously with the lyrical groove of the tapping of rain, rolling thunder, and honking cars create a treat for readers' eyes and ears. This book could help temper the anxieties of children who are afraid of stormy weather or it could be paired with Wendy Cheyette Lewison's Raindrop, Plop! for a lovely rain-themed storytime. VERDICT Beautiful illustrations and a soothing lullaby make this a solid purchase for school and public libraries.—India Winslow, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, MA

School Library Journal

2019-02-17

An inner-city lullaby from a black father to his son.

When the driving rain comes and the storm winds blow, this brown-skinned dad lovingly comforts his son by associating weather events with different types of music. The raging storm gets remixed into a song, the howling winds create nature's voice, and the rushing waters play music. Like many other celebrity books, this one is didactic and preachy in its approach to addressing the child, who lacks any agency. In this rhyming poem ("radios sing in every home, / steady like the city's metronome"), the scenes jump: from the child's naptime to a band of multitalented black angels singing in heaven to the boy asleep in a yellow paper hat-turned-boat in a city gutter next to the fast-moving shoes of city dwellers. The artwork, which Myers composed with Kaa Illustration (the Vietnam-based team Phung Nguyen Quang and Huyn Kim Lien), looks cartoonish and far inferior to most of Myers' other work. But it would be easy to miss who illustrated the book upon first glance. It would even be easy to miss the title; Timbaland's name so thoroughly dominates the book's cover that most readers will easily mistake it for the book's name.

Perhaps this lullaby should have been a song or rap; it certainly has little to offer as a book. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews

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