I'm NOT Sleepy! Goodnight, Good Dog by Mary Lynn Ray

There is a house, a dark, quiet house, where everyone is dreaming. Everyone but the dog.

THE DOG ISN'T SLEEPY.

Oh, he knows all the prompts. The lights click off; the refrigerator's hum seems louder. The shadows are darker in the corners, and the moon through the windows shines silently.

HE KNOWS HIS BED, ROUND LIKE THE MOON.

But he's just not sleepy.

He wants more. More daytime. More time to chase his ball under the round bouncing sun, through the green grass with his girl. He wants more toy time, more dish time. He wants more petting. He wants to hear a voice saying "Good dog!" But goodnight?

NOT THE DOG.

He climbs into his little round blue bed. Perhaps he can get in the mood. Perhaps he can dream back the sun in the blue, blue sky, and his red ball in the green, green grass. Maybe he can dream of someone he loves saying,

"GOOD MORNING, GOOD DOG!"

Mary Lyn Ray's latest, Goodnight, Good Dog (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) hits all the marks for a soporific story. A nighttime house getting quieter and darker, a moon at the window, a cozy bed waiting, and one little bedtime denier who. is. not. sleepy.

Noted author Mary Lyn Ray takes a definitely from-the-ground-up, doggy's-eye view of the sleepytime rituals--Dad rousing himself from a pre-bedtime snooze in the recliner, the click of the lamp switch, the sounds of the house--the refrigerator's hum, the creaks in the walls-- seeming suddenly louder, the goodnight pat on the pup's head, the soft breathing of his girl and the dark, still house with someone afoot who is not sleeping--yet. In tune with Ray's sibilant storytelling, artist Rebecca Malone also shows the wakeful dog's view of the sleeping house, happy dreams, and a sweet awakening, executed in quiet shades of flat blue and green with wide, black outlines set alternately in spot art and full-bleed pages. A winning bedtime tale with a four-legged protagonist standing in for the customary youngster who is just NOT quite ready for snooze time.