Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | DRAGONWAGON | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | ABC Dragonwagon | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Salem Main Library | JP Dra | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Woodburn Public Library | E Dragonwagon | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
My little one, lay down your head. It's time to doze, it's time for bed. You tell me, "I'm not sleepy now." "Just try," I say. You ask me, "How?"
In this lyrical animal ABC book, a mother tries to tuck her child in for the night by telling him about all the awake animals that are getting sleepy. From antlered Antelope to zzz-ing Zebra, this alphabet of animals becomes an exquisite celebration of language and nature, just right for lulling even the most wide-awake little ones into a cozy, soothing slumber.
Author Notes
Crescent Dragonwagon is an award-winning author of more than 50 books, over half of them picture books, including Always, Always , which received the Parents' Choice Literary Honor, and the Coretta Scott King Award-winning Half a Moon and One Whole Star , illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, which was a Reading Rainbow selection. She has also written two novels and several acclaimed cookbooks. The daughter of legendary children's book writer and editor Charlotte Zolotow, she published her first children's book at age 17 ( Rainy Day Together , Harper, 1970). She lives in Vermont. Visit her online at www.dragonwagon.com.
David McPhail has been a passionate artist since the age of two. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and began illustrating books for children in 1972. Since then he has created dozens of beloved books, including the celebrated Mole Music , which was a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year, the bestselling If You Were My Bunny , Edward and the Pirates , Lost! and Drawing Lessons from a Bear . He lives in New Hampshire.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-K-In this cozy alphabet/bedtime hybrid, a mother tucks her reluctant child into bed, offering examples of how other animals prepare for sleep to convince her little one to doze. The story begins and ends with the mother speaking in soothing rhyming verse; her alphabetized descriptions of "the awake animals getting sleepy" are non-rhyming but mostly alliterative, e.g., "Cat's curled up on a crimson couch cushion." Full-page watercolor and ink illustrations in soft, muted colors depict mildly stylized, drowsy animals (generally one, but sometimes two or three per letter). The large cursive capitals fit well into the overall design of the pages, noticeable but unobtrusive. With dozens, if not hundreds, of other alphabet books out there (including previous alphabet books by Dragonwagon and McPhail), it might be difficult to find room for one more, especially in smaller collections; however, if you are looking for new additions, this one is quietly pleasant.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Parents are wont to point out that just because everyone else is doing something doesn't mean their offspring should, but Dragonwagon and McPhail provide a persuasive exception. When a small boy resists sleep, his mother points out that "every creature, tame and wild,/ has night and day, has still and leap,/ has wide awake and sound asleep." While McPhail imagines that some of those weary animals are watching from the doorway and window, Dragonwagon offers an "alphabet of ways to sleep," smoothly working in some alliteration: "Rabbit relaxes into restful repose, dreaming of ripe red radishes." With meticulous inking and a palette of watercolors that glows with the soft colors of dusk and twilight, McPhail portrays an animal world where sleep is a welcome visitor and bedding down is an eloquent expression of personality. Each of his animal portraits is a beautiful mix of texture, detail, and mood, whether portraying a yawning, hulking yak or an otter who snoozes while clutching a looping letter "O" like a floatation device. Ages 3-6. Agent: Edite Kroll, Edite Kroll Literary Agency. Illustrator's agent: Faith Hamlin, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
"My little one, lay down your head. / It's time to doze, it's time for bed," chants the motherly woman tucking in a wakeful child at the outset of this drowsy-animal alphabet book. "Even all the awake animals are getting sleepy": from antelope to zebra, each prepares for the night and gently succumbs to slumber in alliterative prose ("Rabbit relaxes into restful repose, dreaming of ripe red radishes"). Sometimes multiple animals are featured (Swan, Snake, and Sloth fill a spread), but more often there's just one per letter ("Turtle's tired, and turns in"). X doesn't get its own animal; instead, Y's yawning yak is "expecting an exceptionally excellent night's rest." It's all depicted in twilight, moonlit tones in McPhail's signature style, as cuddly animals with amiable expressions drift off to dreamland while the lullaby concludes and the now-sleepy human child is tucked in. "And since you have a cozy bed, / a pillow for your dozy head, / with no more why and not one how / might you, like them, start sleeping now? / Sssshssssshssssshhh." And so to sleep. joanna rudge long (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Alliteration and animals add up to a child asleep in this latest offering from picture-book veterans Dragonwagon and McPhail. Opening text introduces a familiar bedtime battle of wills between a child who resists slumber and a mother trying to lull him to sleep. This introductory section adopts a rhythmic, rhyming text that culminates with the mother saying, "The answer, darling little child, / is every creature, tame and wild, / has night and day, has still and leap, / has wide awake and sound asleep." Ensuing pages go through the alphabet using alliterative language to describe animals going to sleep, from: "Antelope is already asleep, all the way to his antlers" to "and Zebra just Zzzzzzzzzzs." These entries are rather uneven, and while the mother's recitation may lull the child in the book to sleep, the impact on children listening to the book may be the opposite if they are interested in tracking the alliteration from page to page. Furthermore, the movement away from, and back into, rhyming verse feels rather forced. McPhail's watercolor-and-ink illustrations, however, are consistently lovely in evoking diverse, sleepy fauna and simplified landscapes from page to page, with the pleasing inclusion of animals who appear in the alphabet pages in the opening and closing bedroom scenes. A sweet depiction of sleepy animals that will especially please McPhail fans. (Picture book. 2-4)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This lyrical picture book begins with a bedtime conundrum: how do you sleep when you're not sleepy? The mother here avoids the traditional route of counting sheep and instead leads her child through an alphabet's worth of animals who are almost asleep. Each animal is introduced alliteratively: As the light laps the leaves, Lion lies down, lounging low with Lioness and the little one. X is tricky, as usual, but since these animals are expecting an exceptionally excellent night's rest, the formula works and the cadence is maintained to the end. Many of the animals will be familiar to children, while some quetzal, urubu are more exotic. Children will have fun identifying them if they are still awake, that is. McPhail's watercolor-and-ink illustrations are gorgeously serene, and the darkening evening light, depicted in washes of burgundy, gold, and teal, is beautiful. The rhyming text at the end breaks the spell of the A-to-Z lullaby, but by that point the little boy and all the animals are well on their way to a good night's sleep.--Dean, Kara Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
At the stroke of midnight, a shadowy figure swings across a moon-filled landscape. His silhouette, armed only with a collaged rope and the hint of a sword on his back, "climbed and clambered" along walls lined with mysterious, darkened textures. "The house was silent. Everyone was asleep." And then, out of nowhere, he's caught! The novice. DaCosta, in her first picture book, seems nonetheless experienced with such nighttime apparitions. This one's aborted mission was chocolate milk. He'll finish it in the morning. ALL THE AWAKE ANIMALS ARE ALMOST ASLEEP By Crescent Dragonwagon. Illustrated by David McPhail. 40 pp. Little, Brown & Company. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6) Another entry in the reluctant sleeper category, with a sweetness reminiscent of Mem Fox's delicious "Time for Bed" and a menagerie to match. Here, persuasion is signaled through an A-to-Z's worth of sleeping animals, with creatures like the ibex and the quetzal dredged up to round out the alphabet. A cat is "curled up on a crimson couch cushion," and a dromedary "drops down to his knees, dozing under the date palms." This is a familiar tale, but McPhail's watercolors are luxuriously colorful, like a warm, luminescent blanket at bedtime, and the alliterative text is softly lulling. SLEEP LIKE A TIGER By Mary Logue. Illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. 40 pp. Houghton Mifflin. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 7) "Once there was a little girl who didn't want to go to sleep even though the sun had gone away." Well - who ever heard of such a child as that? This one's got a scooter, a stuffed tiger, a princess tiara and a copy of "The Little Prince." And though she's recalcitrant, her parents are agreeable and accommodating. They patiently answer all her questions ("Do whales sleep?"). They tire her out. Logue's text is reassuring and rhythmic, but it is the fine detail and plush atmospherics of Zagarenski's layered multimedia illustrations that make the book shine. The lucky girl gets to cozy up to a slumbering tiger, an oversize fantasy of her lovey, at story's end. BEDTIME IS CANCELED By Cece Meng. Illustrated by Aurélie Neyret. 32 pp. Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Never mind the convincing and the cajoling, the tricks and the threats and the extended bouts of despair. Just get rid of bedtime altogether, as Maggie proposes and her brother transcribes. Her parents dismiss the notion, but a tenacious reporter grabs hold, and in full-on 2012 fashion, the story is e-mailed, texted and broadcast about, with parents gaping at the "Bedtime Is Canceled" headlines on their iPads as they stroll through the park (a little too real). Neyret's images veer toward the cartoonish, but children will appreciate the humor. There is much to mock in overtired parents, it seems. NIGHTSONG By Ari Berk. Illustrated by Loren Long. 48 pp. Simon & Schuster. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) There is nothing at all cute about bats, but don't tell that to the talented Long ("Otis," "Of Thee I Sing," "Angela and the Baby Jesus"), who has managed in the past to make even a tractor endearing. Here we are called on to sympathize with a little nocturnal creature who is afraid of the dark. Berk's able storytelling enriches and elaborates on what might otherwise seem a tired notion. Of course, there's also a message about learning to rely on your own senses (or echolocation), and making your way in the world. Even when you're completely in the dark. PAMELA PAUL ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.