SHHH! I'M SLEEPING

Originally published in New Zealand, this title demonstrates how hard sleeping through the night can be, especially with seven friends in the room!

The folio dimensions—tall and narrow—of this board book provide an ideal canvas for the funny and all-too-familiar bedtime antics that take center stage here. The basic setup remains constant: two towering bunk beds, with four beds each, dominate the space, a simple lamp above each sleeping space. To begin, all the lights are off and all the beds are filled, but someone is snoring and keeping someone else awake. Turn the page and click—a light above the wakeful pup snaps on, and speech bubbles appear: “Are you asleep, Misha? Popov’s making so much noise.” The pups begin to wake one by one, all except snoring Popov, wanting one another’s toys or some water or to sleep in someone else’s bed. Before long, they all end up in Misha’s bed listening to a story and falling asleep in a big snoring heap on the top bunk, leaving poor Popov to wonder where they’ve all gone. While minimal speech bubbles help convey some action, much of the plot is to be discovered in the funny, detail-rich illustrations, which children will enjoy poring over again and again. It’s visually complex enough to make the usual board-book audience of babies and young toddlers a tad too young to appreciate it.

Older toddlers and preschoolers will relate to these not-so-sleepy pups and delight in their evening escapades.