A little boy who “couldn’t and didn’t and would not sleep” prefers to stay awake and play. Every night after Oliver Donnington Rimington-Sneep’s parents kiss him goodnight and turn off the light, he bounces out of bed. Oliver paints, draws, does magic, reads and races cars. He even blasts off in a rocket all the way to Mars, where he isn’t at all scared. But eventually Oliver soars back to his room where “all his cuddlies looked cozy and warm” and, after all that adventure, he’s finally ready to fall asleep. The soporifically rhythmic verse casts Oliver as the mini-hero of his real and fanciful bedtime adventures. Whimsically detailed watercolor and line illustrations lift Oliver from the intimacy of his bedroom into a boundless outer-space fantasy world where creatures bear a strong resemblance to Oliver’s stuffed “cuddlies” and the rocket ship looks a lot like Oliver’s toy space ship. A warm and fuzzy homage to Sendak’s Max and his wild things guaranteed to lull little ones into their own night-time adventures. (Picture book. 4-7)
