A little boy asks at bedtime, "Why does the day have to end?" His mother responds, "So night can begin." "Nothing ends," he finally concludes, as a "thin new moon" shines high. Glowing artwork in warm colors created in oil paint on wooden panels brings a new dimension to one of Zolotow's hallmark lyrical picture book dialogues between a parent and child. The reassuring counterpoint of a loving adult's certainty about daily and seasonal cycles is comfortably juxtaposed with her open-ended, honest responses to abstract queries natural to all children. (Ages 3-7)

Where does the wind go when it stops?

When a little boy asks this question at the end of a happy day, his mother explains that the wind does not stop-it blows away to make the trees dance somewhere else.

Reassuringly, she tells him that nothing ever ends, it simply begins in another place or in another way. Rain goes back into the clouds to create new storms, waves fold back upon the sea to become new waves, and the day moves on to make way for the night, bringing the darkness and stars for the little boy to dream in.

Charlotte Zolotow's lyrical prose and Stefano Vitale's rich illustrations make this a beautiful celebration of the cycle of life.