As frigate battles in the age of sail were often determined by one single resolute move, a hazardous stroke whose success or failure entirely fixed the outcome of the battle, so do children’s books whose bases are a single, strongly exhibited theme, thrive or perish on the strength of that single theme. With this in mind we may safely consider Imagine A Night, I Saw a Bullfrog, and A Winkle in Time.
    Imagine A Night, by Rob Gonsalves, is centered on the theme, borrowed from Escher, of the seamless flow of an image from one point to another, a bed quilt for example, flowing into a patchwork of tilled fields. I Saw a Bullfrog, by Ellen Stern, is centered on the premise of animals whose names are composed of two different animals, the first being descriptive, the second providing identification, as in bullfrog, rhinoceros beetle, and zebra fish. A Winkle in Time, by Lara Jo Regan, undertakes to realize the concept of dressing up a mixed breed miniature dog in historical costumes to illustrate "the underdogs of history," meaning bits of somewhat neglected historical figures or movements such as Fanny Lou Hamer, and the Canadian racehorse Northen Dancer.
    The brilliant, dynamically imaginative paintings of Imagine a Night, are heightened by the singularity of their concept. As each page is turned the reader truly feels that they are traveling in a world whose borders soften and transform into a fresh path upon approach. The action of figures, a woman holding up a globe whose shadow is cast upon the actual moon, defining its phase, a hardwood floor growing into a hardwood forest, a city skyline snipped into being, cut out of a curtain, are truly engaging. The invitation of the simple text by Sarah Thomson to "imagine a night ...when drifts of moonlight take on shape and form," is so well realized that one feels drawn to pick up the book many times after putting it down.
    I Saw a Bullfrog, by Ellen Stern is a delightful book whose subjects, such as elephant seals and catfish, are composites not only in name but in image. Stern’s rhyming text perfectly compliments the illustrations, drawing young reader’s attention to various elements of the pictures. "I saw a bullfrog perched on a lily. He was bigger than it, so he looked sort of silly. Like a bull, he was sporting a ring in his nose, But his front end had hooves while his back end had toes." The simplicity of theme makes the book entirely accessible to its young audience, who will find much to laugh at and discover in the balanced interplay between drawing and text.
    A Winkle in Time is ultimately built around the notion that Mr. Winkle, Regan’s pet, is "the cutest dog in the universe." That may be true, but I’m inclined to think Regan is referring to some other universe. On her website Regan informs us that "I knew I had to do something to share Mr. Winkle with the world. His cuteness is almost too overwhelming for one person to take!" One can certainly sympathize with that sentiment. Mr. Winkle, whether one considers him cute or disconcerting, is viscerally overwhelming. If one does not consider Mr. Winkle cute the book has nothing to offer.
    The supposed "underdogs of history" theme is nothing but an excuse to dress Mr. Winkle up. The historical anecdotes are flip and even bizarre. We learn, for example, of Arab Architects of the 7^th to 13^th centuries that "most of the Arabs’ engineering marvels were trashed by jealous mongol hordes stampeding through the middle east in the 13^th century. Fortunately, you can’t keep a grand tradition down--even if its been pulverized into sand dunes. Because grains of that sand blew around the world as great notions." Well, that is a consolation. In short, if you like looking at pictures of Mr. Winkle, there are pictures of Mr. Winkle in this book. If you do not like looking at pictures of Mr. Winkle you will feel that you need a potent sedative of some kind, such as leafing back through the comforting pages of Imagine a Night.