Author-illustrator Eugenie Fernandes’ latest work explores babies’ dreams in a soothing way for parents and infants. In the same warm fuzzy bedtime genre as Teddy Jam’s This New Baby and Sam McBratney’s Guess How Much I Love You, Fernandes’ book reassures and comforts both mother and child in its affirmation of the protective power of parents, watching over and loving their baby. Baby Dreams is a good gift for new parents and will be enjoyed with children under age three.

The text of Baby Dreams is simple, repetitive, and lyrical, a sort of prose lullaby in which the mother wonders what her baby sees and hears while asleep. Her imagined dreamscape is a properly solipsistic baby world, where children play, words echo, and smiles “shine / just for you.” The dream sequence ends with the baby’s sudden cry, and the mother’s reassurance that she will forever be “watching and dreaming with you.” The book’s intimate, protective feel remains consistent, even through an imagined nightmare, and will leave readers suitably lulled.

Fernandes’ illustrations create a dreamy fantasy world that complements the soothing message of the text. Her smiling moons, happy animals, and even occasional thunderstorms are painted with sweet dreams in mind, and fans of traditional, realistic illustration will appreciate her style. Her palette of cool greens, blues, and pale yellows is appropriately mellow for a bedtime story, though it results in a muted jacket design that’s not immediately eye-catching. The one unfortunate aspect of this book is the typeface, which is confused by umlaut-like markings surrounding the letters. Visually vexing, these markings are a poor choice for a book aimed at tired parents reading in low light.