A Long Winter's Nap: Good Night, Mouse! by Jed Henry

HOW ARE WE GOING TO HELP MOUSE SLEEP?

"I KNOW HOW TO WEAR HIM OUT!" BOASTS RABBIT.

Rabbit hops, hops, hops, but Mouse never stops long enough to get sleepy.

The other animals are all tired, but Rabbit is still wired. He just knows he can outlast a little mouse.

He decides that a long, hot bath will lull Mouse off to Dreamland. That done, he and the other animals pile together to stay warm and the newly laundered Mouse stretches out on the top of the pile. All the rest drift off to dreamland, but Mouse is still wide awake.

"ALL THIS FLUFF IS GETTING STUFFY!" HE FUSSES.

Mouse isn't sleepy, but he does want a midnight snack!

There is no one foraging in the dark--except Mouse's cousins, the bats. Let's hope that they have some wacky snacks to share, in Jed Henry's charmingly illustrated Good Night, Mouse! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). If his restful rhymes don't lull the little listeners, Henry's soothing palette of muted greens, blues, and browns and his appealing snoozing critters--a frog, mole, badger, and of course, a resourceful rabbit--don't move the somnolence-avoiding Mouse toward bedtime, a little help from a nighttime chorus of crickets, led by a baton-wielding bat, should do the job. As School Library Journal observes, "Henry's gentle, mixed-media illustrations bring out the humor of the situation when good intentions meet mismatched expectations."

Pair Good Night, Mouse! with its jolly companion book, Jed Henry's recent  Cheer Up, Mouse!