In a Blue Room: A Lullaby for the Senses

[Image courtesy of Harcourt Children's Books]

In Jim Averbeck's gem of a children's book, In a Blue Room, young Alice is "wide-awake past bedtime" and bouncing in her room, unable to sleep until her room is blue.

"I can only sleep in a blue room," says Alice. "Blue is my favorite."

But Mama brings fresh lilacs and lilywhites into Alice's bedroom, and soon enough "Alice twirls around, plops down, and breathes deep."

The reader does too, breathing in Averbeck's words and illustrator Tricia Tusa's evocative images like a sweet, fragrant, calming breeze.

Masterful Mama brings many things into Alice's room - none of which are blue, to Alice's dismay, but all of which prove to be an irresistible feast for the senses: hot orange tea that cools in a brown cup; a silky-soft, warm and cozy quilt of red and green; the soft chime of yellow bells on black strings.

Click! goes the light as Alice fades, and like magic, her room and everything in it - flowers, tea, quilt, bells - are blanketed in beautiful, soothing, pale blue moonlight. The perfect goodnight.

I have read this special book to both of my children (ages 7 & 9) - never at bedtime, mind you - and they were immediately transfixed. Was it the image of a girl bouncing wildly on her bed? The idea of a child being wide-awake past bedtime? The fact that this "blue room" was actually yellow?

Yes - probably to all of those things. They were hooked from page one and absorbed every carefully chosen word and accompanying whimsical illustration on every page.

They were intrigued, perhaps also by the notion that darkness doesn't have to be scary. Rather, it can be magical and transformative...blue, not black.

And blue? Well what could be more soothing? And just in time for bed.

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