Lights Out! The World's Champion at Staying Awake by Sean Taylor

"GOODNIGHT, STELLA," SAYS DAD. "TIME TO GO TO BED."

Not a problem for Stella. She's fine with that. It's her bed buddies--Cherry Pig, Thunderbolt the Supermouse, and Beanbag Frog--who are not up for going down!

"SLEEP IS TOO SLOW!" CROAKS BEANBAG FROG.

"I'M THE WORLD CHAMPION AT STAYING AWAKE!" SAYS CHERRY PIG.

Stella knows she's going to need some imagination--and a bit of luck--to get her plush pals into night-night mode. How 'bout a voyage on the her trusty pillow boat, rocking gently on the soft waves of the sea? Cherry Pig soon succumbs to the gentle motion and drops into dreamland.

Then Stella puts the pillow into a box and beds down Thunderbolt and Frog in it for a dream wagon drive across the floor, and Thunderbolt the SuperMouse falls fast asleep during the ride. But Beanbag Frog seems to be made of sturdier stuff.

"I'VE SHUT MY EYES, BUT MY FEET ARE COMPLETELY WOKEN UP!" HE COMPLAINS.

Hmmm! Land and water transport hasn't done the trick yet. Time for liftoff into a space soporific. How about a ride into the wild blue yonder? Frog is air-lifted heavenward in a hot-air balloon, and the soft floating sensation finally sends him into slumberland. Whew!

SO THE WORLD CHAMPION AT STAYING AWAKE MUST BE STELLA.

OR MAYBE NOT.

Stella is satisfied, but too sleepy to celebrate her newly-won status, in Sean Taylor's newest,The World Champion of Staying Awake (Candlewick, 2011) and this slumbertime switcheroo puts Stella in charge of putting her reluctant charges into snooze mode in this little bed-NOT! saga. The straight-forward narrative is set off in charming color drawings against a white background, and the design shifts the pleasant poetry describing the dream-inducing sequences into artist Liao's full-bleed pages as Stella's pals take their trip into sleepytime land. Plump those pillows and settle down for pleasant voyage to sleep!