Do Sheep Count Sheep? How Animals Sleep

Gr 1-3–In spread after spread, Barikova’s facts about animals and Macurova’s illustrations treat knowledge like gossip, using magazine-style layouts and clipped, expressive language. Speech bubbles from the animals in the scenes add humor, but under the introduction, “How Do Animals Sleep?” is serious information—a bat hangs upside down, a giraffe curls up like the letter C. Readers learn that creatures as small as ants dream, and in a page turn, learn more about sleeping gerbils in a cascade of facts. Will children realize that gerbils don’t actually settle down in an iron bedstead, or that the kangaroo sprawled on its back with a cool drink and something to read may be an exaggeration? This is a volume to browse and share, and to use for research only with backup resources available. The real point is that nonfiction is funny, especially in the hands of these humorous creators, who aren’t afraid to put the food of the koala (eucalyptus leaves) right next to a scene of a sleepwalking koala about fall from a branch.