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ROLL OVER! by Merle--Adapt. & Illus. Peek

ROLL OVER!

By

Pub Date: April 1st, 1981
Publisher: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin

There were ten in the bed/ and the little one said/ 'ROLL OVER!/ ROLL OVER!'/ They all rolled over/ and one fell out."" This old song is not new to picture books, and Stan Mack's 1974 Ten Bears in Bed at least provided some visual twists to accompany the countdown. Here, instead of bears, Peek's little boy has a variety of animals in bed with him; and as the song proceeds from ten in bed to nine, eight, seven, and so on down, a monkey, a bear, a deer, a snake, and others leave the bed and settle themselves elsewhere in the candlelit bedroom. Finally, when the little boy blows out the candle with a satisfied ""Alone at last,"" we see the whole room cleared and the animals in place in a frieze around the top of his wail. But that's the only original detail in a series of softly lit but expressionless two-color [blue and yellow] pictures.