Race You to Bed

by Bob Shea, Bob Shea (Illustrator)

Overview

Ready . . . Set . . . Go to Bed!

Jet to bed to get to bed!

Don't be fooled or be misled!

I'm gonna beat you, beat you to bed!

It's a race to bedtime—but who will get there first?

This zippy read-aloud will make bedtime a fun time for those little ones reluctant to make it to the nightly finish line.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062080929
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/15/2011
Series:	Marley Series
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	2 - 4 Years

About the Author

Bob Shea has written and illustrated over a dozen picture books, including the popular Dinosaur vs. and Ballet Cat series, I’m a Shark, and Oh, Daddy! His characters and animations have appeared on Nick Jr., Disney Junior, and PBS Kids. Bob spends his days writing and drawing. He can be found online at www.bobshea.com.

Editorial Reviews

Even before the title page in this lively romp of a bedtime book, a white rabbit challenges readers to a race to bed. The rabbit’s adventures are initially conventional (“Up to bed.../ down to bed...”), but quickly become silly (“All around a goat to bed”). The wide-eyed, irrepressible rabbit goes through poison ivy, swings across a river of crocodiles, and endures outlandish adventures full of non sequiturs (“Sneeze to bed!/ Grilled cheese to bed!/ Angry, angry bees to bed”). In a clever bedtime-friendly ending, it announces, “Looks like I beat you!... Oh, you’re already in bed?/ You were way up ahead?/ Okay then, race you to sleep!” Shea’s illustrations of the rabbit—with purple kewpie doll eyes, pink ears and belly, and cottony fur—are a tad saccharine, and its expressions are somewhat repetitive, but like the high-energy narrator of Shea’s New Socks (a book he pictures the rabbit reading), this zippy rabbit gets the last laugh as it winks at readers to indicate it’s only pretending to sleep. Ages 4–7. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-K—A fuzzy white rabbit with an oversize head races readers to bed, but he finds many reasons to delay bedtime. Animals, toys, and other objects divert his attention. "Sneeze to bed! Grilled cheese to bed! Angry, angry bees to bed!" The whole story is one long chase scene. The rabbit goes up mountains, through an alligator-filled lake, through some poison ivy, on a car, on a bus, on a train. Then he needs "A snack to bed and a drink to bed, a bath, a brush, and a book to bed." When he finally hops into his bed, he discovers that "you" are already there. "Okay, then, race you to sleep!" This is a clever twist, engaging children in an active way. The singsong rhyme flows as the rabbit cavorts through the flat colored pages. The backgrounds are all done in soothing pastel colors, with the exuberant youngster cavorting across the pages. Clever details in the art enhance the telling. Every child who has ever fought against the enforced bedtime will cheer for this rabbit and his adventures, and hopefully join the final race to get to sleep.—Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI

School Library Journal

A hyperactive, saucer-eyed rabbit challenges readers to a race to bed and runs into a gamut of unexpected animals, people and predicaments along the way. Quick, simple rhymes keep bunny bouncing from page to page, zipping past goats, bees and alligators and riding trains, jets and buses. Even a fall off a cliff, a yummy grilled-cheese sandwich and a run-in with a massive whale don't slow him down. Every line in this frenetic picture book ends with "to bed," setting an oddly energetic race pace for a bedtime story. Bright graphic illustrations stimulate eyes with interesting patterns and shapes, all communicating movement brilliantly but doing little to soothe or induce sleep. The digitally enhanced rabbit gives off an unnatural glow on his nonsensical journey through so many non sequiturs. When he finally reaches his bed, rabbit realizes readers were actually already in theirs all along and had won before the book even began-a clever ending that will elicit a smile or two. Next race? To sleep! (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews