The Countdown! Five More Sleeps 'Til Christmas by Jimmy Fallon

What are the longest nights of the year? If you are a kid, it's not the dark nights around the winter solstice. It's the ones before Christmas!

JUST FIVE MORE SLEEPS TILL CHRISTMAS!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S HERE?

I KNOW THAT SANTA IS COMING SOON,

"CAUSE I'VE BEEN GOOD ALL YEAR.

This kid has been unbelievably good! He's decked the halls with bells that jingle. He has nothing to fear from old Kris Kringle!

He's been a remarkable scholar. He's kept his pup well fed. He's eaten his food without complaint. But he dreads going to bed.

Why? It's those last five nights before Christmas with all those visions of sugar plums and cool new toys dancing in his head. Those five sleeps seem like a lifetime. He twists and turns. His eyes just won't close. It's thoughts of those gifts! So many of those!

The sleeps count down. Four? He walks the floor. Three? How much longer can it be?

He's down to just two sleeps! He's so excited he can't think of sleeping a wink!

And then it's Christmas Eve! There's even snow! The kid hustles about getting ready. Santa's snacks are out. Traditional songs are sung. Christmas stockings are hung.

ONE MORE SLEEP AND I'LL BE DONE!

Breathes there a kid who hasn't experienced Santa-induced insomnia? In Jimmy Fallon's jolly Christmas Countdown tale, 5 More Sleeps ‘til Christmas (Feiwel and Friends, 2020), his little red-haired hero lies awake late into the night with anticipation, although, as his dog can attest, not so late as the kid thinks. Now that Santa's returned to his polar place, it's time to start anticipating the next year's Christmas day, only 364 days away! Grownups know that the joys of anticipation may be remembered longer than the toys themselves. But Fallon's perfectly rhymed quatrains and Rich Deas' lively comic illustrations done in vivid colors of the season make this one a joy to read aloud for kids who just can't wait!

For more pre-holiday fun, share this delightful Max and Ruby Yuletide story, Max's Christmas (Max and Ruby) by the noted author-illustrator Rosemary Wells.

It's a Hard Job, But Someone's Got to Do It! Up On Bob by Mary Sullivan

It's naptime for Bob the wiener dog.

In the quiet bedroom the bed is made up neatly, with two bedtime toys neatly side-by-side on the pillow. There's a lot of work to do to get it ready for the nap. But that's okay with Bob.

BOB LIKES HARD WORK.

Bob is on the job. The lovey toys get the deep six--overboard. The bedtime book and lamp likewise.

Hard work is Bob's middle name. He pokes his pointy nose under the coverlet and roots around until he can crawl under it, his head on the freshly plumped pillow, ready to sleep the day away.

But Bob can't sleep. He senses that he's being watched.

SOMEONE.

Someone's white paws, pink ears, and whiskers appear beside the bed. Oh, no! Bob does not need a bed buddy!

Bob feigns deep sleep, his eyes resolutely closed, willing the nap interloper to disappear. And she does--momentarily. But then--

POUNCE!

Bob's ruse is no use. Someone walks on Bob. Someone kneads his head and licks his ear! Someone gives Bob a full-body massage. Someone else has a strong work ethic. And Someone's dedicated work...

... PAYS OFF!

It's a perfect catnapping place, pre-warmed, crafted to perfection, in Mary Ball's Up On Bob (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020). Is it a case of pet rivalry or a case of co-pet cooperation? Perhaps there's some of both, in the award-winning Mary Ball's latest.

Ball's funny page-by-page pacing and skilled but simple line and color endow both pets with ample personality as they make peace for the sake of the NAP, one goal they share. This is a great one for emergent readers, a sure pleaser for reading aloud, and even sleep-inducing for bedtime, a new picture book not to be missed.

Holy Pajamas! Bedtime for Batman by Michael Dahl

EACH DAY THE SUN SETS.

EACH EVENING THE DARK NIGHT RISES.

As a young Robin finishes building his own block version of Gotham city, outside his window the Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne, climbs into his tights, cape, and Batman mask.

The little Robin wannabe also climbs into his Batman pajamas, as Bruce points to the Batclock. It's time to prepare for the night.

Our little Robin sticks to the checklist: he puts away his toys, washes up, brushes his teeth, and climbs up and up into his towering top bunk, while Batman looks down from a gargoyle atop his skyscraper at the city below. It's time for the Dark Knight to do his duty.

"THERE'S A LONG NIGHT AHEAD!"

To sometimes weary parents, bedtime is a nightly adventure and getting youngsters to take to their beds is indeed a heroic deed, and author Michael Dahl gives young superhero lovers something to dream about in his new Bedtime for Batman (DC Super Heroes) (Capstone Young Readers, 2016.) With the help of artist Ethen Beavens' dramatic comic-book-style illustrations, the boy's bedside window becomes the movie screen upon which the Dark Knight carries out his mission during the, er, dark night. Comparing going to bed to the caped crusaders' nightly derring-do may be a bit of a stretch, but a good imagination and a pair of pajamas with a cape may make the transition a bit easier for those little bedtime resisters of the action figure persuasion.

Says Kirkus Reviews, "... this is certainly a niche read, but it hits its mark well, delivering fun without darkness. A 'bedtime checklist' at the end aptly includes 'story time.'"

Pair this one with its DC Comics' companion book, EVEN SUPER HEROES SLEEP (DC Super Heroes) or with one of Michael Dahl's noted bedtime stories for the action-oriented, Goodnight Baseball (Sports Illustrated Kids Bedtime Books) (See review here) and Goodnight Football (Fiction Picture Books).

In the Z-Z-Z-Zone! Sloth Slept On by Frann Preston-Gannon

HE WASN'T LIKE ANY OTHER CREATURE WE HAVE EVER FOUND IN OUR BACKYARD.

WE ASKED HIM HIS NAME. WE ASKED HIM WHAT HE WAS DOING IN OUR TREE.

BUT THERE WAS NO ANSWER. HE WAS ASLEEP.

The good-hearted kids load the creature up on their little red wagon, his relaxed limbs dangling, and set off to find the answers to their questions.

Dad is too busy to take a look at their passenger, so they move on, inside the house to do some research in their animal books, but they don't see anything like their shaggy, somnolent friend. He's certainly not an elephant or a zebra. He has big claws, but he doesn't look much like a bear. Maybe he's an astronaut alien for another galaxy far, far away!

However, lying unnoticed on Dad's armchair, the Daily News has a banner headline:

ZOO BREAKOUT!

Then, in a book on the rain forest, their search pays off. He sleeps a lot, he moves slowly, or not at all, and he has shaggy fur. He's got to be... A SLOTH!

These thoughtful kids know the sloth's family must be worried, so they don't let the grass grow under their feet. They decide to send the sleepy sloth back to the nearest rain forest.

WE FOUND A NICE BIG BOX AND USED ALL THE STAMPS WE COULD FIND.

WE PICKED SOME LOVELY LEAVES FOR THE JOURNEY.

The kids dutifully haul the big box off to the post office, paying no attention to the signs posted along the way with pictures of the sloth. The caption says

IF FOUND

PLEASE RETURN

TO THE ZOO!

But the sloth sleeps on as the plane wings its way to the the deepest, darkest jungle, where the postal workers leave the box under a tall tree. The monkeys are curious and pry open the box.

The sloth is awake! And he has a question for the monkeys.

"EXCUSE ME. WHICH WAY IS THE ZOO?"

Bears and sloths sleep on... and on. But not even Karma Wilson's Bear can sleep as much as a sloth, as Frann Preston-Gannon's latest, Sloth Slept On (Sterling Books, 2015), proves. Preston-Gannon's narrative is delivered by the would-be helpful kids in deliberative, deadpan style, while her dutiful little animal lovers are totally oblivious to the zoo's efforts to find their wandering sloth, an irony that won't be at all wasted on young readers.

Pair this one with Preston-Gannon's previous book about another rather exotic critter, How to Lose a Lemur (see review here), or either of these jolly sloth stories--Helen Lester's Score One for the Sloths (Laugh-Along Lessons) or Jenny Offil's Sparky! (read review here).

ZZZZZZZZ! Shhhhhh! Stop Snoring, Bernard by Zachariah Ohora

BERNARD LOVED LIVING IN THE ZOO.

...BEST OF ALL, HE LOVED ...NAP TIME!

Bernard loves his otter family, his really cool pool, and all his nice neighbors. As far as he is concerned, everything is hunky-dory at home in the zoo. But when Bernard begins his beloved naptime, his cousin Grumpy Giles has just one thing to say:

"STOP SNORING, BERNARD!!"

Bernard wants to please, so he takes his noisy naptime to the lake and settles down to snooze.

"STOP SNORING, BERNARD!"

The alligators are angry, and Bernard retreats from all those teeth, turning in for his nap in the zoo's fountain.

"STOP SNORING, BERNARD!!" FRET THE GIRAFFES.

(Not easy for them to say.) But Bernard feels their pain and heads off. Where can he float on his back and get a little shuteye? A puddle? Not so roomy as his usual digs, but Bernard is ready to settle. But, forced to drift off to dreamland in his puddle, Bernard is just dropping off to doze, when...

Well, you know what the elephant shouts.

Poor Bernard. It's getting late, and his naptime has turned into nighty-night time. Finally he takes refuge in a dark, cavernous opening. And strangely enough, no one yells. Bernard wakes up, well rested, just as the residents come flooding inside--a flock of bats. Now Bernard gets it--bats don't sleep at night, so his nocturnal snoring is no problem for them. Now if he could just find someplace to nap in the daytime....

Zachariah O'Hora's first picture book, Stop Snoring, Bernard! (Henry Holt, 2012) features the sort of eye-appealing illustrations that make it irresistible to pick up and open. His graphic style, using thick outlines, dark, deeply saturated colors, and a highly creative use of white space, page design, and thought balloons, makes it a real kid pleaser. The simple story's resolution is not foreshadowed, but the kids won't worry about the ending so long as they can join in on that oft-repeated punch line, "STOP SNORING, BERNARD!"

"Wide black outlines and O'Hora's own display type add graphic pizzazz to spreads featuring charmingly depicted animals. An artist to watch," says Kirkus.