★ 03/01/2019
K-Gr 3—Lyrical language and stunning, semi-realistic digital artwork strike a serene balance between dreamland and the natural world. Atmospheric spreads and imagery-packed verses depict a variety of sleeping animals in their habitats. "The humpback whale/dreams vertically… Balancing on her head/or the tip of her tail,/this ballerina nosedives/into sleep." Some of the entries lean more toward the whimsical: "Slung like a hammock,/the sloth dreams/of spring-loaded sprinters,/of rockets blasting off,/of pump-action spinning tops./When the stopwatch starts,/our dreaming racer/doesn't move/an inch." Contrasting dusky hues with bright oranges and greens, Simler's handsomely composed images expertly use lines to create texture and depth. Most animals are depicted with both a full-body image and a zoomed-in shot. Wordless double-page renderings of various biomes are interspersed throughout, providing opportunity to discuss species' habitats. A glowing full moon adorns many of the spreads, adding continuity and building toward the final scene, where a child dreams of interacting with these animals "beneath the moon." VERDICT Share this exquisite offering as an introduction to the sleep habits of different animals, an imagination-stirring example for poetry writing, or a soothing bedtime story to inspire sweet dreams.—Joy Fleishhacker, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs
★ 2019-01-28
A stylized, visually stunning introduction to animals and animal facts that doubles neatly as a bedtime story.
In this French import, slumbering animals, insects, and sea creatures are depicted in highly detailed spreads paired with lyrical free verse. Delicate clusters of lines characterize the digital illustrations, which, dominated by black, resemble scratchboard with a modern twist: Vibrant neon-orange highlights the moonlit details on nearly every page. The visual and verbal pacing excels. Wordless full-bleed landscape endpapers and title pages gently draw readers in, inspiring quiet wonder and appreciation of the natural world before zooming in on the first featured creature: a sloth, asleep in a tree. What follows is an organic, loosely educational exploration of animals' experiences of sleep: In each spread, Simler's text, translated from the original French, cleverly acknowledges fact (the sloth sleeps "slung like a hammock") while entertaining flights of fancy ("the sloth dreams / of spring-loaded sprinters, / of rockets blasting off"). The creatures themselves are easily recognizable; many, refreshingly, are less-common subjects, including a humpback whale, a flamingo, and a wild boar. Every so often, the close-up animal spreads are punctuated by new wordless nighttime landscape spreads over which to linger. In the final spread, an unnamed light-skinned girl slumbers: a cue for readers to do the same. The satisfyingly large trim size, soothing pacing, and imaginative text invite shared (and frequent) reading.
A delight. (Picture book. 3-8)
