The too-sweet language of this bedtime rhyme is belied by Joyce"s dark and atmospheric illustrations. Every night Nicholas Cricket plays his banjo with the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band. \"Moonlight glows and summer wind blows,\" as \"peep-peep-peepers come dancing through the vines\" and \"rabbits come dancing on tip-tippy toes\" because \"the music is just so grand.\" The poem"s meter is annoyingly irregular--\"In the blue blue night / when the moon is bright / underneath the leaves of summer, / if we"re quiet and quick\"--and often predictable. But Joyce ( Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo George Shrinks ) cleverly evokes the dimly lit speakeasies of Hollywood. Monocled, zoot-suited insects frequent Nick"s Cafe where a lady bug wears a red fez, a turtle sports a top hat, and at dawn \"the Bug-a-Wugs grow sleepy and still.\" Ages 4-8.