Note: I accessed digital review copies of this book through Edelweiss and NetGalley. ( )

this book spotlights acknowledging each member of the community living a very individual life: all through the eyes of the rabbit on its way home. despite all of these differences, the book concludes by observing that "everyone goes home to bed"- suggesting similarity and unity among the difference.

This is a kid's book, but it's really good as an adult. Check it out at the library or something if you don't have younger kids. ( )

This is a sweet story about a little bunny's experience on the way going home at night. She is carried by her mom and she saw different people at home at night. When she went to bed, she wonders what those people are doing then.

The color tone of the book is dark, illustrating a silent and night feeling. The author use soft pencil lines in pictures, creating a dream-like atmosphere. When introducing each neighbor's activity at night, some pages offers a window view for readers, as if readers are the bunny looking into the window of a neighbor and wondering what is happening in there. It is interesting that when it is about what the neighbor are doing, the author provides a window view with bricks, curtain, and frames; while it is about what the bunny imagine what neighbors are doing, the author providesa white frame even not in a window shape. I think this is a way the author tells readers to differentiate what is real and not real for the story.

Through this simple experience, I suppose this story would introduce a concept of diversity for readers and for further thinking, such as, what it is like to be someone else? It is easy for readers to see themselves in this story. On one hand, many people have similar experience during childhood. On the other hand, readers may see them as the bunny or see them as one of the neighbors. It is about the concept of multiple perspectives. ( )

Japanese author/illustrator Akiko Miyakoshi, whose picture-book The Tea Party in the Woods was translated into English 2015, produces another breathtakingly beautiful work here. A young bunny, being carried through the nighttime streets by her mother, observes brief moments in the lives of others, as she glimpses various scenes through the lighted windows of their businesses and homes. When she gets home herself and her father puts her to bed, she imagines the conclusions to some of what she has seen...

Originally published in Japan in 2015, and in this English translation in 2017, The Way Home in the Night was chosen as one of The New York Times' best illustrated children's books of 2017, and it is not difficult to see why. Miyakoshi's artwork, done in pencil, charcoal and acrylic gouache, is simply lovely, capturing the beauty and mystery of the night, adeptly playing with light and darkness, and skillfully contrasting the outdoor and indoor scenes. The story here, which is gentle and contemplative, reminded me of of Julia Denos' Windows, which, although very different in style from The Way Home in the Night, also features a child walking through the darkness, catching glimpses of other lives through the lighted windows of the buildings he passes. The storytelling style here will lend itself to bedtime reading, I believe, with a lulling quality that is very appealing. Recommended to fans of Akiko Miyakoshi, in whose number I now count myself, and to anyone looking for beautifully-illustrated, gently-told bedtime tales. ( )