Night-Night All: Everyone Sleeps by Marcellus Hall

Everyone was getting ready for bed.

"Goodnight, everyone!" they all said.

Dad switches off the downstairs lights as everyone traipses off toward their bedrooms. Baby is sound asleep, her big sister is ready to snooze, and the cat curls up for a long nighttime catnap.

Even the computer sleeps.

But there is one still wide awake--a big-eyed pug who watches everyone settle down and leave him for the land of dreams.

Feeling all alone in the house, he roams outside to see if anyone is awake.  He sees ducks dozing in a row, frogs sinking to the muddy bottom of their ponds to snooze.  Bears can sleep for months, and giraffes sleep standing up.  Polar bears drowse on ice floes, and walruses sleep on their backs in the sun.

The little pug spots a herd of sheep, all together in a grassy field.  Are they all asleep? He stops to count how many are sound asleep."YAWN!" The pug almost dozes off, himself, before his insomnia reasserts itself and he sadly heads for home.

It's lonely.

And then he sees his house with a lamp shining from one upstairs bedroom.  It's his girl.  And she's not sleeping either.

She couldn't sleep and neither could I.  But maybe together....

The noted and multiple award-winning Marcellus Hall's new Everyone Sleeps (Nancy Paulsen/Penguin Books, 2013) takes a humorous look at the search for sleep as his little pug protagonist sets out to find someone with whom to share his insomnia, with a surprise ending that will give readers a sleepy giggle. Hall's trademark illustrative style is put to good use in his appealing nightscapes as his cute little hero, seriously-seeking-sleep, finally catches some zzzzs.

Popular books illustrated by Marcellus Hall include Karma Wilson's The Cow Loves Cookies, Sherry North's Because You Are My Baby, and Lee Bennett Hopkins' City I Love.

Keep the Sleep! While You Were Sleeping: Fun Facts That Happen at Night by Steve Murri

When you're asleep, the fingernails on your dominant hand (lefty or righty) grow more than on the other hand! And you replace all those dead skin cells you were shedding (yuk!) all day long.

While you snooze, your brain stays on, but it cools down--as much as 2 degrees lower than its standard operating temperature and requires 25% less blood flow.. Your heart slows down about 12 beats per minute and your blood pressure drops.

What does your body do with all that energy it's saving? It fixes things! Human growth hormone (HGH) is only released during rest. Muscles that have been strained are repaired. Worn-out red blood cells are recycled to make fresh new ones. And kids do most of their growing in the somnolent state. So even though staying up late may get you to the next level on your favorite game, it won't make you tall and strong and smart enough to do big things in the real world, so GET YOUR ZZZZZs!

And while the human body is recharging itself on this side of the date line, all kinds of things are going on on the other side of the earth with folks on the diurnal swing shift, in Steve and Matthew Murrie's latest compendium, While You Were Sleeping (Fun Facts) (Scholastic, 2012) This latest includes chapters about the nocturnal side of the human body, sports, pop culture, space, and the animal world. This sequel follows the Murries' companion book, Every Day On Earth: Fun Facts That Happen Every 24 Hours (Scholastic, 2011), another of those fun factoid collections that are the nonfiction analog to eating peanuts--fun for light browsing and yet filled with food for thought.