They're BAAaak! Sheep Go To Sleep by Nancy Shaw

SCREECHES! RUSTLING! NOISY CRICKETS!
SHEEP HEAR HOOTS FROM NEARBY THICKETS.

NIGHTTIME NOISES SCARE THE SHEEP.
REALLY, WHO COULD GO TO SLEEP?

Sheep are a natural for a sleepytime story, except--these five sheep can't get to sleep.

They've got winking fireflies to light their way and get them in the mood to snooze; they've got a fold filled with fluffy straw. So what's missing in this nocturnal mix?

Security, that's what. Sheep are not good sleepers! Why do you think they're up, nervously jumping fences at all hours, while wakeful wannabe snoozers are counting them from their beds?

Luckily, these sheep have just what they need, a watchful sheepdog, in the form of a jolly boarder collie pup who knows just what each sheep needs to get to sleep. The count goes up as Sheep One succumbs to snores after a snuggly doggy hug. Sheep Two needs a sip of water before he goes under, and Sheep Three is lured into slumber by a lullaby.

THREE SLEEP. HOW MANY MORE?

With three down, the last two sheep drop off in sleep with the delivery of that tried-and true bedtime duo--the Teddy bear and the blankie! It's all in a night's work for their watchdog, who finally gets his own forty winks, in Nancy Shaw's eighth in series, Sheep Go to Sleep (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015).

This newest in Shaw's Sheep Series has all the elements that have delighted children from the first book, Sheep in a Jeep--rhythmic rhyming couplets that feel just right, and Margot Apple's beguilingly silly sheep, their expressive faces and body language softly sketched in colored pencil. Artist Apple adds a quizzical observer to the pictures, a sleepy seagull who seems to have wandered into the story simply to nab a nap herself, and Shaw also slips in a bit of counting practice for the youngest sheep fans. Altogether a sweetly suggestive bedtime soother that can't help but induce sleepiness at just the right time of night.