Sleep, Sheep!

Written by Kerry Lyn Sparrow

Illustrated by Guillaume Perreault

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-796-5

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

October 2018

Duncan may be the little guy who can defer sleep with an endless stream of demands and excuses but he meets his match in Sheep #68, one of the counting sheep Duncan needs to help him fall asleep. Getting a sheep to jump in its predetermined sequence seems to be as hard as getting a little one to sleep. Go figure.

From Sleep, Sheep! by Kerry Lyn Sparrow, illus. by Guillaume Perreault

Duncan didn't mind going to bed but he'd do anything to avoid sleep. He would need to change his jammies, to change his socks, to get a night light or two, to get a drink of water, to read another story, to find his favourite toy, to change his pillow, etc., etc., etc. But one night, his clever mother makes sure every thing he might ever need and more is in his room (except for the washroom). When he declares he is not sleepy, she recommends that he count sheep.

From Sleep, Sheep! by Kerry Lyn Sparrow, illus. by Guillaume Perreault

Soon a barrage of sheep, labelled with different coloured race numbers, are jumping over Duncan's bed and he counts. He starts to get sleepy but he has to sit up when Sheep #68 refuses to jump. Seems there's always something to prevent Sheep #68 from leaping and keeping up Duncan's count. With every request, Duncan gives in. Water, bathroom, the need to stretch, consider his green socks, and on and on. Eventually Duncan recommends that Sheep #68 join, without leaping over the bed, the first sixty-seven sheep already sleeping on one side of the bedroom. And with that, Duncan and Sheep #1 through #68 are asleep. 

Who knew that bedtime could be so exhausting?

What a turnaround of a story, from little boy who frustrates his mother with his relentless bedtime demands to a sheep frustrating the same boy with its exhaustive appeals. It's probably maddening for all concerned: mother, child, sheep. But, told with the seriousness of children who are trying to reason their way through difficult situations, it's actually maddeningly absurd. But, Kerry Lyn Sparrow, parent and teacher, seems to know how to handle the wearisome bedtime antics of children and makes sure that Duncan gets as good as he gives without any nastiness or offence. In Sleep, Sheep!, Kerry Lyn Sparrow's first book, she gives Duncan and Sheep #68 true voices that reflect their anxieties and resoluteness but still makes them empathetic characters.

From Sleep, Sheep! by Kerry Lyn Sparrow, illus. by Guillaume Perreault

Even Quebec's Guillaume Perreault makes his cartoon characters relatable, giving them expressions of confusion, embarrassment, fear and even pleasure. I couldn't help but feel pity for Sheep #68.  Just as Duncan feels the pressure to fall asleep, it feels the pressure to perform. Appropriately, Guillaume Perreault, who shared the win for the 2017 Le Prix TD with Larry Tremblay for their book Même pas vrai (Éditions de la Bagnole, 2016), works with Kerry Lyn Sparrow's story to make it evident that compassion is required to help make an awkward situation right. After all, who is going to stay up all night waiting for one sheep to jump? Here's hoping Duncan wakes up in the morning still recognizing the similarity in the sheep's actions with his own and the consequent happy endings that come with sleep.

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.