FICTION

How Do You Go to Sleep?

Knopf. Oct. 2019. 32p. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780525579441.
COPY ISBN
Toddler-PreS–Animals can sleep standing on one foot, stacked in a heap, or floating in the bay. But how do children go to sleep? In this companion to How Do You Take a Bath?, McMullan compares the sleeping habits of baby animals to a child’s familiar bedtime routine. “How do YOU go to sleep?/Do you stand and lock your knees?/Is your bed beneath the leaves?” One-to-a-page, baby animals sleep in their natural habitats. Seals sleep while floating. Dolphins swim in their sleep with one eye open. The meerkat “sleeps in a heap”with the rest of its family. Most interestingly, the octopus changes color during sleep. Periodically interjected, the titular question accompanies children attempting to mimic animal sleeping behaviors. A brown-skinned human family wraps up with familiar rituals like turning off the light and bedtime kisses. The digital, earth-tone illustrations depict serene animals snoozing with doting animal parents looking on. Cartoon children and parents are softened by minimal outlines and a sponge-effect overlay. Young readers will want to cuddle up with the cozy animal babies and may chuckle as the kids try out the different sleeping methods.
VERDICT A bedtime book that will soothe and please children and caregivers.

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