This Is The Way We Go To Sleep: Good Night, Good Night, by Sandra Boynton

THE SUN HAS SET NOT LONG AGO.

A boat, not unlike an ark, loaded with a variety of animals, from bunnies to bear, puppy to elephant, sails by in the setting sun.

NOW EVERYBODY GOES BELOW.

The sun is gone, but there are still duties to be done.

The animals take a bath, dry off, and hang their towels neatly on the wall. Rhino leads the way with pajamas for all.

WITH SOME ON TOP AND SOME BENEATH

THEY BRUSH AND BRUSH AND BRUSH THEIR TEETH.

It's up a deck to huff and puff with lifts, sit-ups, rope jumping, and toe touching.

And down again to go to bed, some at the foot, some at the head.

It's "Good night, off with the light!"

THE SEA IS DEEP--

And so is their sleep!

In her 1982 revision of this longer version of The Going-To-Bed Book, Sandra Boynton's just-published Good Night, Good Night: The original longer version of The Going to Bed Book (Little Simon, 2021 ed.), the routines and rituals of bedtime provide the plot, as author-illustrator Boynton's charming and humorous illustrations feature double-page spreads with her jolly and idiosyncratic crew preparing to go gently into that good night. As always, Sandra Boynton's distinctive soothing and sweet bedtime books are in a class by themselves.

QUIET! SHHH! The Baby's Asleep by JaNay Brown-Woods

NOW DON'T MAKE A PEEP....

THE BABY'S ASLEEP!

Mom creeps out of the room on the quietest of feet, worrying that the slight creak of the floor will wake the baby, who is finally asleep!!

But there's a whole big family downstairs, each one with his or her own noise potential.

Daddy's hungry stomach rumbles and Granny's washing swishes, and Pop Pop's big ACHOOS might end Baby's snooze! Sister Shae's hair dryer's whir gets shushed, as well as Dante's little hammer and Rover's howls.

Now what's that loud noise from next door?

MR. YOUNG'S MOWER ROARS!

UH OH! WAAAHHHHHH!

That does it! The baby is awake and bawling. Then big brother has an idea.

"YOU KNOW, WHAT WE NEED IS A GOOD BOOK TO READ!"

And brother Dante is at least partly right. Daddy reads and Baby loves the book, while the rest of the family slip into sleep, in JaNay Brown-Woods' brand-new picture book, Shhh! The Baby's Asleep (Charlesbridge Press, 2021).

With clever rhyming couplets with plenty of onomatopoeic words just right for read-aloud fun, and with artist Elissabura's bright caricatures of a multigenerational family and colored lettering that tracks the sounds through the not-quite-quiet house, this is a fine story for all the families who have ever been hushed or shushed while baby sleeps, or not. Says Kirkus, "Delightful comic relief for every household with a baby."

Bedtime Resistance Revisited: Sleepy, The Bedtime Buddy by Drew Daywalt

Roderick hated going to bed.

Roderick has apparently polished his bedtime resistance routine for years. In addition to the old standbys--a drink of water and another story, he can keep his parents going for quite a while coming up with reasons why he CANNOT have a pony--including the irrefutable...

... Ponies won't use a litter box.

It's time for some serious parental intervention--in the form of a "special" plush pal.

"His name is Sleepy," said his mother.

"He's your goodnight buddy," said his father.

Roderick's parents put him to bed with Sleepy. Sleepy's spooky stare is hard to take, and Roderick tries stashing him out of sight--on the bookshelf, under his pillow. But he can still FEEL that weird gaze. He sticks Sleepy in the closet.

"Wait!" said a quiet little voice. "Don't leave me alone in here."

Roderick can't believe Sleepy is actually telling him he's scared.

"Of what?" Roderick asked. "You were staring at me all freaky looking
."

"Because you were staring at me all freaky looking," said Sleepy.

Roderick soon finds out that Sleepy knows all the tricks. He politely asks for a glass of water. Then he has to go to the bathroom "because of all the water," but he's scared to go by himself. Then he remembers that he forgot to brush his teeth. He promises to go to sleep after one story. And then he asks for another. The story scares him, so he needs a snack to settle his nerves.

"It's the middle of the night!" Roderick shouted.

Of course, after a sandwich Sleepy has to brush his teeth again. And then he's worried about a witch in the closet. Finally, he wants to talk about the meaning of life. Roderick is both weary and angry.

"I can't sleep because you're mad at me!" whines Sleepy.

"You're the worst bedtime buddy EV-er!"

Roderick the bedtime resistor has met his match, in spades, in Drew Daywalt's laugh-out-loud latest, Sleepy, the Goodnight Buddy (Disney Hyperion, 2018). Sleepy's tactics exhaust Roderick in a turn-about-is-fair-play tale with a comic comeuppance. Daywalt's offbeat humor works well in this story, which somehow ends with sympathy for the parents, Roderick, and even his roommate Sleepy. Parents who are running out of patience with young sleep avoiders will get both revenge and a mutual laugh with their kids, thanks to the absolutely comical illustrations of artist Scott Campbell, whose portrayal of Roderick's eyes tell the whole story. Cannily, Campbell even tucks a clever little sight gag in on the colophon page--a new toy, Wakey, The Good Morning Buddy Alarm Clock.

Drew Daywalt is, of course, the blockbusting best-selling author of The Day the Crayons Quit and its sequels (read reviews here).

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.

Too Much of a Good Thing! Wakem the Rooster, Up All Night by David Fitzsimmons

WAKEM THE ROOSTER HAD AN INCREDIBLE VOICE.

WITH SUCH AN INCREDIBLE VOICE, WAKEM COULD--AND DID--SING FOR HOURS.

All his farm friends value Wakem's work. He wakes them in the morning so that they can start the day bright and early. And they are lavish in their praise.

Unfortunately, fame goes to Wakem's head.

His powerful voice is heard ringing throughout the day. And then he begins to crow all night!

All night?

COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!

A few bracing morning Doodle-Doos are one thing! Doodle-doing all night long is another! The barnyard animals grow more and more groggy from loss of sleep. Even Wakem realizes it's too much of a good thing. He can't sleep either, and when he's awake, he's just gotta crow!

Wakem asks his friends for advice on how to cure his insomnia. Dog suggests exercise and a healthy diet, but that just seems to give his a lustier voice. Cat advocates yoga and meditation. Owl proposes counting sheep. But Wakem can't find the sheep. They're not in the barn and not in the farmhouse, not out in the pasture, nor hanging out at the pond. Wakem climbs the hill to look for them. He's more tired than ever, but not quite too tired to doodle doo!

But then he hears a faint baaaa coming from the cave. It's the sheep, trying to find a quiet place to sleep. Wakem starts counting and soon...., he sleeps all night!

ZZZZZZZZ!

Is Wakem the Rooster finally back on schedule? David Fitzsimmons' Wakem the Rooster: Up All Night (Wild Iris, 2017) takes on the dilemma of getting your days and nights turned around, an especially pesky problem for any farm's feathered alarm clock. Artist Richard Cowdry, illustrator of the popular Bad Dog, Marley! and others in the I-Can-Read series, offers up vivid, comic scenes of the sleep-deprived barnyard denizens in a funny farm fable of too much of a good thing.

Power Down--Please! Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! by Todd Tarpley

THREE LITTLE ROBOTS, TIME FOR BED.

TIME TO DIM YOUR INFRARED.

A sleepy boy, already in his stripey PJs, leads his three robots toward their beds. But first, there's the nighttime ritual to get through.  They brush their rotors, shower, and, ahem! take care of toileting, making a mechanical mess along the way. The toothpaste extrudes all over the place, the sink overflows, the toilet paper unfurls all over the tiles, and the shower splashes over the rim of the tub.

The boy is clearly weary, but he piggy-backs one little robot, with the other two seemingly sleepy cyborgs behind him, toward his room, where he beds down the three.

QUIET AT LAST, NOT A PEEP.

Or not. One robot turns on the light, and they all have a complaint! One misses his coil. Another holds out his cup for a drink of oil. The last claims his sensor hurts.

The tired boy tugs his toolbox out from under his bed and takes care of their complaints, and they all settle down, or so it seems. But then...

BEEP! BEEP!

One robot waves his Saturn night light. The other two complain about a too-loose belt and a too-tight bolt. The boy sleepwalks through the various fixes. And then they three trundle back to their triple-decker steel bunk beds.  The yawning boy clambers back under his blanket.

Peace at last?

BEEP!

Apparently, all the robots' circuits are still firing, their gears grinding. The boy delivers an ultimatum!

NO MORE BLIPPING!
BLINKING-BOINKING!
WINKING-WHIRRING!
SQUINKING-OINKING!

OINKING?

They're adjusted, given oil, offered nightlights and a coil. What else would a robot want?

Oh.

A BEDTIME STORY.

It's a cyber goodnight at last, in Todd Tarpley's Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! (Little, Brown and Company, 2015), a rhyming story in which Tarpley turns the tables on the kid, giving weary parents a chance to see the bedtime shoe on the other foot. But the robots get the last whirr and wink, because it's the boy who falls asleep first, as the whole cast of characters snuggle down for a bit of co-sleeping in the boy's bed.

Caldecott-Honor artist John Rocco (for Blizzard) struts his stuff in ink-line, watercolor, and digital illustrations that are long on wit, satire, and charm. His boy plays a little grownup, tired and with his patience wearing thin as his electronic charges pull out all the usual sleep-avoiding tricks. Visual humor abounds, a robot on the toilet wound in toilet paper, and a mouse along as observer, soaping his armpits in the bathtime spillage, trudging off to the bedroom in his little fuzzy bathrobe, trying to sleep through the whining and beeping, and at last sacking out on the boys' bed with the rest of the guys. Humor, wordplay, and a clever comic consciousness gives these sleepytime resisters quite a cachet for the story circle set.

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.

Doze-apalooza: SnoozeFEST by Samantha Berger

AT THE CENTER OF SNOOZEVILLE DWELLS THE SLEEPIEST SLOTH, SNUGGLEFORD CUDDLEBUN.

NOW THAT SLOTH COULD SLEEP, FOR MONTHS AT A GO.

THE FEW TIMES SHE RISES, SHE MOVES IN SLOW-MO.

But Snuggleford is not without her aspirations. Her passion is attending the biggest sleep festival in the land, the annual SnoozeFEST. She rests up all year to get in shape for the big event, packs her comfiest comforters, fluffiest feather bedding, and poofiest pillows, and heads over to the venue at the NuzzleDome.

All the pro sleepers stow their gear and head for vendors' row.

SNUGGLEFORD STROLLS THROUGH THE STANDS.

FOR POSTERS AND T-SHIRTS AND SWAG FROM THE BANDS.

She hits the hot-milk-and-honey bar for a retire-riffic toddy and settles into her homey hammock while the opening cradle-rocker bands--Dormant Gabbana, Louis Futon, Alexander McDream, Diane Firstinbed--do their sound checks. Then the house lights go down and Chamomile Rage take the stage for the first set, a real snore from the reactions of the crowd, who settle deep in their sleeping bags. Poets go up for a sleepy slam onstage, and the classical ensembles take the limelight-the Quiet Quartet, Tranquility Trio, Drowsy Duet, Sweet Dreams, and Deep Hiber-Nation--lulling the fest-goers into an altered state of soporific consciousness.

"I'll See You In My Dreams" is the theme song of Snuggleford Cuddlebun and the other somnolent concert-goers, in Samantha Berger's latest, Snoozefest (Dial Books, 2015). A "lazy, hazy" spoof of music festivals and the notorious energy of sloths, Berger buddies with artist Kristina Litton, who offers some sharp visual humor in her funny festival signage and the loveliest lantern-lit nighttime scenes since Brian Lies spotlighted his Bats in the Band (A Bat Book). Doubling as a tummy-tickling music festival takeoff or as a sleep-provoking bedtime story, this one hits the hay, um, mark right on target. Snooze on, Hiber-Nation!!

Shuteye Shortfall! Everybody Sleeps (But Not Fred) by Josh Schneider

IN THE JUNGLE, TOUCANS SNOOZE.
ALSO SLOTHS AND COCKATOOS.
IGNORING SNORING STRIPED HYENAS,
MONKIES DREAM THEY'RE BALLERINAS.

BUT NOT FRED.

As pajama-clad Fred brushes his teeth, his bulldog clambers into his bed, and his cat laps through his last wash-up. On his nightstand his ants snooze in their farm. On his bed a toy monkey, monster, and monkey hog Fred's pillow and his plush sheep is dozing, supine, feet in air.

But Fred's a lad who has a long to-do list, one that requires night-time overtime. While his beddy-bye pals get their ZZZs, Fred is loading up his sleepy-time scow, the USS Insomniac, with a bunch of brass band instruments for its nocturnal voyage.

In the jungle, cockatoos snooze on toucan's bills, the sloth seems to be sleeping (but how can you tell?), and somnolent monkeys dream of ballet in their tutus.

Not Fred, though. He practices leaping while the monkeys hoot at his jete'.

Down on the farm stinky hogs snore in rows and the sheep sleep, except for one count-keeping bookkeeper who schleps his antique adding machine to the sheep stall. One toucan seems to have nested with the hens, and a bit of tutu is in sight among the pig pile--until Fred blasts the barn to break the world shouting record.

At sea whales and jellyfish are asleep in the deep and ballet monkey, pig, toucan and sheep snooze in a rubber raft until the USS Insomnia steams into sight. Fred opens his act with the Alpen horn and blasts everyone awake.

Fred moves on.

SCARY THINGS THAT LURK AND SLINK

STOP ALL THAT FOR FORTY WINKS,

LIKE OTHER CREATURES NOT HERE LISTED--

MONSTERS, TOO (IF THEY EXISTED).

But Fred is still up and at 'em, inspecting the monster dormitory for the illusive Sasquatch.

Not even the most soporific of poetry books puts Fred out for the count, even though those farm hens are roosting on the headboard of the bed and one of the ballerina monkeys is sacked out underneath. But where is Fred? Has he succumbed at last to the siren call of sleep?

PLEASE, FOR NOW DON'T MAKE A PEEP.

JUST CLOSE THE BOOK AND LET FRED SLEEP.

Editor's Warning: Although the Library of Congress has classifed Josh Schneider's Everybody Sleeps (But Not Fred) (Houghton Mifflin Clarion Books, 2015) as a "bedtime" book, it's not an instant snooze inducer.

Youngsters will be too busy perusing and pointing out funny stuff on each page to zip through this one before calling lights out. Theodor Seuss Geisel award-winner Scheider's rhyming couplets have their own intrinsic linguistic humor, but his pages are packed with visual jokes for the sharp-eyed, wide-awake reader. Monkey ballet slippers have an opening for that pedal thumb, the accountant sheep wears a green eyeshade, and the smelly hogs' stalls have hooks for their little fir-tree air fresheners to hang on their tails. Jellyfish wear sleeping masks, a stray toucan keeps a low profile hanging upside down along with the monster bats, and Sasquatch's Bigfoot shoes give away his bunk. There are lots of giggles hiding in plain sight among Schneider's jolly ink-and-watercolor illustrations that will keep pages turning backward and forward until readers quietly close the book to keep Fred asleep!

Pair this one with Doreen Cronin's recent bedtime hit, Click, Clack, Peep!

Up All Night!: Simpson's Sheep Won't Go to Sleep by Bruce Arant

FARMER SIMPSON WORKS ALL DAY.

HE PLANTS HIS CORN AND BEANS AND HAY.

EACH NIGHT BEFORE HE GETS HIS REST,

THE FARMER TRIES HIS VERY BEST

TO GATHER UP HIS FLOCK OF SHEEP 

AND TELL THEM THAT IT'S TIME TO SLEEP.

The good farmer's call for lights out works just fine with the rest of the barnyard.  Ducks quack softly and hens cluck quietly and then they are off to dreamland. Ditto for the cows and pigs. But the sheep, those folkloric icons of dreamland?  They are a different story.  There's no rest for the weary with this fretful flock.

THEY ALL HAVE EXCUSES WHY THEY CAN'T LIE DOWN, OR EVEN TRY.

THEY NEED A DRINK, THEY WANT A SNACK. THEY HAVE TO "GO," THEY LIKE TO YAK.

The sheep grumble and toss and turn. Their pasture grass is too wet, the ground is hard and lumpy, something doesn't smell so good! On and on and on. Farmer Simpson can't catch his forty winks because of his wakeful sheep's constant complaints. He staggers through his daytime chores, eyes half closed, and it's the same story every night.

But then, when he drags himself to town to get a birthday gift for his good wife, he sees something that just may solve his insomniac sheep problem. Soft fuzzy blankets--on sale! Anything for a good night's sleep, Simpson figures, and he brings the blankies home.

And it works--for "each cuddly lamb ... and ewe and ram."

How Farmer Simpson pulls the wool over his sheep's eyes at last is the rhyming plot of Bruce Arant's new sheepy-time tale, Simpson's Sheep Won't Go To Sleep! (Peter Pauper Press, 2013). Arant's verses are as lively as his  wide-awake flock, and the contrast of the sheep with their wide-eyed insomnia and the droopy-lidded farmer tell the tale with great good humor.  School Library Journal says "Parents will sympathize with Farmer Simpson, and children will totally understand where the sheep are coming from. Great fun for everyone!"

Quiet! Dragon Dad Napping! One Drowsy Dragon by Ethan Long

THREE dancing dragons
learn to tap, tap, tap.

TAPPITY TAPPITY  TAP TAP  TAPPITY 

One groggy dragon groans,
"I want to nap!"


Kids just want to have fun.

Dad just needs to catch up on his sleep.

In an inventive counting book that just won't quit, Ethan Long's One Drowsy Dragon  (Orchard Books) is a cacophonous celebration of onomatopoeia and rhyme, as first one little dragon taps out some percussion on his tin cup, a pair of  space-warring little alien wannabees shoot it out with their zap guns, and at last nine noise-making little dragonettes find yet another way to keep Dad awake.

Not since Dr. Seuss's little bears decided to hop on pop has there been a merrier group of kids keeping Dad from his nap. Dad Dragon, all set for sleep with his long nightcap and blankie, can't catch a single Z with these kids making a racket with scary videos, jamming with their garage band, and even playing a clackety croquet game.

But after a day of uproar, even little dragons get tired, and finally Daddy Dragon gets his due and the kids get a bit of payback!

One drowsy dragon finally snores deep.

              GRUNT! SLURP! SMACK! SNORE!

TEN drowsy dragons say..."TIME to sleep!"

Kids will love this story for its silly noises, and parents will appreciate the chance to teach some awesome adjectives and diverse verbs along the way. And, like all good bedtime stories, at the end the kids do settle down for sleep. "A solid storytime choice that covers several popular picture-book topics, including counting, colors, dragons, and bedtime," says School Library Journal.

Count on Sheep? Can't Sleep without Sheep by Susanna Leonard Hill

Ava is not one of those kids whose daily busy-ness leaves them ready to fall asleep when her head hits the pillow. Ava is the other kind--the kind of kid whose mind is always busy, never ready for bed.

Mom is out of ideas and falls back on the old saw suggesting that her insomniac daughter try counting sheep. So Ava does--until the countable sheep union calls a job action.

"Can we please stop?" "We're exhausted!"

"No!" said Ava. "I need you to keep jumping!" said Ava.

"In that case," said the sheep, "we QUIT!"

"You can't quit!" said Ava. "How will I ever get to sleep?"

"Don't worry. We'll find a replacement," the sheep promised.

But the sheep's breezy promise turns out to be as flimsy as fleece. A horse reports for duty, but he's so gorgeous jumping that Ava stays awake for hours making up complex fences for him to jump. Chickens come for a tryout, but chickens are short on qualifications for fence jumping. The dumb clucks are FIRED! Pigs audition, but spend most of their on-the-job time snacking, with only an occasional lumber over the fence. And cows? Well, imagine jumping a fence with an udder.

The sheep keep trying, with moose, giraffes, walruses, penguins, even buffalo trying out, with disastrous results for the fence--and for AVA.

"Stop! I'll never get to sleep like this!"

Somehow, Ava has to stroke those reluctant sheep's egos enough to get them back on the job!

Susanna Hill's Can't Sleep Without Sheep (Walker and Company, 2010) takes a bedtime walk on the wild side, with help from artist Mike Wohynoutka, whose ebullient cartoon characters soar and flop and waddle and bumble across his cinematographic double-page spreads in a unique look at bedtime rituals. As School Library Journal says, "A book that is delightful for the eyes and soothing to the ears, Can't Sleep Without Sheep will quickly become a bedtime favorite and a can't-sleep-without book."

Don't Count on It! No Sleep for the Sheep by Karen Beaumont

In the big red barn on the farm, on the farm, in the big red barn on the farm... A sheep fell asleep in the big red barn, in the big red barn on the farm.

Sheep is ready to sleep, teddy bear under his arm, and he is not counting on helping anyone else get to sleep tonight. Settled down in the fresh hay in a comfy stall, with only by a tiny yellow chick for a roommate, sheep is already snoring away soundly when he is disturbed by a dissonant sound that blasts him out of his somnolent state:

Then there came a loud QUACK at the door, at the door, and the sheep couldn't sleep any more.

Disgruntled, the sheep staggers sleepily to the door and escorts the duck to the stall with whispered instructions:

"Go to sleep" said the sheep, to the duck at the door. "And please don't QUACK any more!"

Even the teddy bear looks grumpy as the disheveled sheep, the duck, and the chick resettle themselves in the stall for what sheep obviously hopes will at last be undisturbed slumber. But in the best tradition of the venerable cumulative tale, this dream is not to be. Sheep is constantly roused from his snores by a succession of supposedly sleepless animals--a goat, pig, a cow, and as horse--who Baa!, Oink!, Moo!, and Neigh! their way in to seek a snooze with Sheep in the increasingly snugger stall, with Chick constantly forced to clamber atop the pile to avoid being squashed. With the huge horse hogging half the sleeping space, there is definitely no room in the stable!

"Shhhh! Not a peep! Go to sleep!" said the sheep.

But there's ONE more farm animal who hasn't yet gotten the message, whose identity is hinted at by the light of dawn glimpsed through the window as the heap of animals finally drifts off to sleep together:

"COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOO!"

In Karen Beaumont's forthcoming No Sleep for the Sheep! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), sheep attempts to sleep in but chick gets the last word, (a PEEP!), in a inventive reworking of the traditional always-room-for-one-more premise. As always, Beaumont's verses are so rhythmical that young listeners will start joining in on the irresistible repetition as sheep issues his orders to each animal in turn.

But Beaumont's text virtually takes off when paired with Jackie Urbanovic's comic brown pencil and watercolor illustrations, which add immeasurably to the effect. Even the teddy, eyes always shut, has a role. and sheep's facial expressions are priceless as he is blasted from his slumbers by the pig and hugely hugged by the horse. Kids will gleefully pick up on the clever visual device by which Urbanovic telegraphs the identity of each approaching midnight visitor to the barn, even as each time sheep settles down to what he believes will finally be a good night's sleep. Both Beaumont (I Like Myself!, and I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! (Ala Notable Children's Books. Younger Readers (Awards))) and Jackie Urbanovic (Duck at the Door and sequels) are no strangers to best-sellerdom, and their No Sleep for the Sheep! looks like it's got all the right stuff to keep its readers wide awake and calling for more from this delightful duo!

Insomniac Owlet: "I'm Not Sleepy!" by Jonathan Allen

BABY OWL STAYED UP ALL NIGHT AS EVERY OWL DOES.

AND HE LOOKED VERY SLEEPY.

"BEDTIME FOR A SLEEPY BABY OWL," MAMA CALLED.

But Baby Owl grumps right back that he is NOT the least bit sleepy!

Sitting on the limb outside his tree hollow, Baby Owl stretches sleepily and Gray Squirrel observes that he surely looks sleepy, but he explains that he just strengthening his wings for the flying lessons coming soon. He settles back down on his limb and can't quite stifle a big yawn. Mouse notices and points out the fact that big yawns mean he's a sleepy little owl. Nope, Baby Owl insists that he's just finding his present company lacking in the excitement little owls need.

Mouse gives up and Baby Owl settles down again. Unfortunately, his eyelids creep shut and he begins to nod off, just as Woodpecker lands on the opposite side of the tree trunk and begins his morning drill.

"DRRRP!!!!!"

"WAAA!!!!"

Baby Owl is blasted awake. Woodpecker is apologetic, pleading that he had no idea there was a sleepy little owlet on the other side of that tempting tree trunk.

"I AM NOT SLEEPY!"

Baby Owl's shout of protest brings Papa Owl to check out the situation. Baby Owl is furious with everyone for telling him is supposed to be sleepy when he knows he's NOT.

But Papa, as always, knows what to do with an adamant little owl. When he proposes a storytime, Baby Owl snuggles right down.

"BUT MAKE IT A NICE LONG ONE BECAUSE I'M NOT AT ALL SL----"

And Papa Owl can't help smiling as Baby Owl finally goes quickly and gently into his version of that good night.

Jonathan Allen's newest book in his Baby Owl series, "I'm Not Sleepy!" (Hyperion, 2010) as just as endearing as its predecessors, I'm Not Scared!, I'm Not Cute!. and "I'm Not Santa!" Baby Owl is everyone's stubborn little toddler whose wise papa knows just the right words to soothe the situation. With an easy text, an incredibly cute main character, and adorable endpapers, this one is just right for a reluctant bedtime-goer's bedtime story.