Undersea Insomnia: The Pout-Pout Fish and the Can't Sleep Blues by Deborah Diesen

Pout-Pout Fish's seaweed seabed is soft and comfy. He's got on his nightcap, and his clock says it's bedtime.

So why are his eyes still open?

Mr. Fish's fins were full of vim.
Though he wanted to be dozing,
There were zero Zs for him.

"I'm wide awake."
It's hard to take
The can't-sleep blues.

But when it comes to insomnia, everybody is an expert. Ms. Clam advocates counting sheep. Mr. Eel suggests a touchy-feely swooshy-swooshy dance to invite relaxation. Mrs. Squid prescribes a blinking exercise to tire out his eyelids. His undersea pals mean well, but their tricks just don't seem to work for Pout-Pout Fish. He's still sleepless in Seaville.

Then his friend Miss Shimmi tells him to combine everyone's tricks and then trust his own way.

So Mr. Fish smooches his Snoozy Snuggly, allows the tide to lull him, and lets his thoughts drift to the sleepyside, in Deborah Diesen's somewhat soporific newest Pout-Pout bedtime story, The Pout-Pout Fish and the Can't-Sleep Blues (A Pout-Pout Fish Adventure) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018). Artist Dan Hanna's soft pastel illustrations are soothing and humorous, and Diesen's rhyme and rhythm may lull any insomniac listeners to float off to dreamland in this latest in this popular series. And if bedtime avoiders are still full of vim, swim over and pair this one with Diesen's and Hanna's Sweet Dreams, Pout-Pout Fish (A Pout-Pout Fish Mini Adventure) for another somnolent story.