It's Time for Bed

Written by Ceporah Mearns and Jeremy Debicki

Illustrated by Tim Mack

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-227-7

28 pp.

Ages 3-5

September 2018

You know the mayhem of getting little ones to sleep? Try managing it when your little one wants to play with all the animals of her Arctic landscape.

Little Siasi is told and asked repeatedly,

It's time for bed. The sun has set.
Siasi, have you ... ?

And she is asked about brushing her teeth, putting on her PJs, putting away her toys, picking a good night story, climbing into bed and closing her eyes. But Siasi's responses are always the same. She doesn't want to. Instead she wants to dance with the polar bear, or run with the caribou, fly with the geese, howl with the wolves, hop with the rabbits, and swim with the fish. But when she says she's done it all, she's definitely ready for bed.

From It's Time for Bed by Ceporah Mearns and Jeremy Debicki, illus. by Tim Mack

It's Time for Bed is based on parents Ceporah Mearns and Jeremy Debicki's own Siasi who would make excuse after excuse to put off her bedtime. Her refusal will be familiar to all caregivers of very young children but it's her unique reasons that will make It's Time for Bed a favourite new bedtime story to read. Children will love her reasons and delight in making up new ones of their own to continue her story for themselves. Even better, It's Time for Bed opens the world of the Arctic to those who have never lived there and reinforces the experiences of those children who have and do.

From It's Time for Bed by Ceporah Mearns and Jeremy Debicki, illus. by Tim Mack

Astutely, Tim Mack, who also illustrated Aviaq Johnson's What's My Superpower? (Inhabit Media, 2017), never makes Siasi's requests seem ridiculous or farfetched. All the animals with whom she wishes to play, even the fish beneath her bed, seem adapted to her bedroom. Moreover, Tim Mack has made Siasi determined, perhaps not to go to bed quite yet, but also boisterous and brash, wide-eyed and imaginative, and no one would want a child to be otherwise. And when she finally closes her eyes, angelic in her quiet, Tim Mack makes sure to include her Arctic animal friends in the shadows to watch over her.

From It's Time for Bed by Ceporah Mearns and Jeremy Debicki, illus. by Tim Mack

Fortunately, for Siasi's guardians and all parents who might read the story, Siasi does eventually follow through on all her bedtime routines, as little children must learn to do, when they know It's Time for Bed.