TEN LITTLE SLEEPYHEADS
by Elizabeth Provost & illustrated by Donald Saaf
In this inventive bedtime countdown, ten different insects—portrayed in sleepwear but with distinctive physical features, and even identified on the endpapers—drop off one by one around or inside a hollow tree: “Ten little sleepyheads / talking to their toys. / One falls asleep / in the middle of the noise.” Saaf animates the pages with movement and thickly applied color, giving the sleepy little ones human eyes and smiles, and filling the spaces they leave behind with oversized, soft-looking garden flowers. At last, only the firefly remains, “ . . . counting back from ten. Is he asleep? No? Well, here we go again!” Still-wakeful young listeners, if there are any, will be more than willing to take a repeat ride. (Picture book. 4-7)