Sumptuous watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations show a day shifting from sunshine to twilight to a deepening night sky. Meanwhile, three children are pulling on their boots, grabbing their flashlights, and heading out into a nighttime world as alive as it is welcoming. As the children search and explore, the text repeats the words dark on light through mesmeric rhymes. “Orange the moon, burnished and bright. / Meadow and owl and dark on light.”…

This is a book capable of banishing nighttime fears, showing the night to be a time of wonder, exploration, and even comfort. Sala’s art matches the cadences of the text beat for beat, offering consistently beautiful images of this undiscovered nighttime world.

Lilting, haunting, rhyming, and as unforgettable as a dream the daylight just can’t quite erase.

The creators of Green on Green follow that seasonal work with one focused on shadow and light, centering lulling, mesmerizing sensate verse accompanied by artwork in warm, saturated hues. At a house in a valley bathed in sunset colors, a family’s dog sets off by itself. Three light-skinned, fair-haired children look out a window as the sun sets (“Rose the horizon, gleaming and bright./ Twilight and evening and dark on light”), then take a shadow-casting flashlight outside to search for the dog. They’re not too worried; one child stops to sniff lavender blooms, while another pauses beneath the moon. They surprise an owl, find the dog, then revel in the sight of enormous trees stretching up to the stars (“Damp the moss. Ancient the sky./ Dark the leaves, crisp and dry”). Light from the house spills onto the porch as the three return, and closing bedtime scenes in a shared bedroom embody warmth and security (“Cozy the blanket. Pillowed the head./ Dark the attic. Snug the bed”) in this quiet celebration of chiaroscuro in the natural world. Ages 3–8.

The author-illustrator team behind Green on Green returns with another paean to benevolent nature. As the sun sets on a house surrounded by idyllic countryside, three children head outside into the deepening night—passing deer, smelling lavender, catching sight of an owl in flight—all the while (as observant viewers will have noted) searching for their errant dog. Happily reunited, all return home to be greeted by two loving adults who wrap them in warmth, read them stories, and tuck them in for the night.

The text consists of a series of lyrical quatrains, almost mesmerizing in their effect… Sala has outdone herself here, with her glorious watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil art lending both structure (the quest story) and atmosphere.

An exemplary, revelatory bedtime book.

Using only poetic couplets which tend to end with the phase “dark on light,” White’s text is the distillation of the journey that Sala depicts of a trio of children with flashlights ablaze who go into the woods at dusk to track down their dog…

White’s wonderful lines giving the essence of the children’s trip (“Inviting the trail. Timid the fawn. Dark the hedge that borders the lawn) are brought into focus by the accompanying illustrations. Sala’s illustrations in watercolors, gouache, and colored pencils have a detail, depth, and color that embody the text while fleshing out the story into a comprehensive whole.

Night can be a source of fear for children, but soothing text and joyful, lively artwork give this picture book the feel of a calm, reassuring lullaby.

Everything about Dark on Light makes it perfect for cozy time or bedtime. Actually, everything about Dark on Light makes it just about perfect.