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.

PB's Comet

Written by Marnie Parsons

Illustrated by Veselina Tomova

Running the Goat Books & Broadsides

978-1-927917-12-1

32 pp.

Ages 4-9

March 2018

While stories that support children's interests in the sciences, tech, math and engineering are becoming more and more common, I don't think there is one out there anything like PB's Comet which promotes the idea of following one's STEM dreams, even if ridiculed or ignored by others, with sheep and and a goat and Newfoundland flair.

PB is a lamb of Toads Cove (the original name of Tors Cove, NFLD) who, with other sheep and a goat, is taken over to Fox Island for summer grazing. While the others bide their time, grazing and watching tourists and whales, PB is reading about astronomer Edmond Halley, studying star charts and staying up at night to ponder the night sky. Her focus is on calculating when the next comet might stream across the sky.  But the old goat "who was inclined to be grumpy and rather remote" (pg. 12) does not appreciate her efforts.

From PB's Comet by Marnie Parsons, illus. by Veselina Tomova

So he'd hide PB's spyglass and munch on her maps
and jumble her numbers while poor PB napped.
But no matter the ills of the old goat's devising,
PB maintained an extremely surprising
insistence that soon her comet would come,
and with every assurance that goat seemed more glum. (pg. 15)

But when that old goat glimpses the night sky, which he'd been missing because of heading to bed earlier than most, PB's pest becomes her protege, joining her to watch the night sky and learn.

From PB's Comet by Marnie Parsons, illus. by Veselina Tomova

Though a picture book which many people incorrectly assume to be only for the very young, PB's Comet is sophisticated in its text and artwork and probably better suited to early and middle grade students who will be able to delve deeper into the science and history of the story. (The endpapers have a colourful timeline of possible sightings of Halley's Comet from 3 c. BC through 1986.) Still, though Marnie Parson's appended notes tell the story of Edmond Halley's 1700 visit to Toads Cove as well as the practice of Tors Cove farmers to take their sheep over to Fox and Ship Islands for summer grazing, PB's Comet is a story even bigger than these elements.

Marnie Parson's rhyming text is rich in word choice and mood. In fact, the rhythms propel the reader through PB's story easily with the text's rhyming scheme (AABBCC) and Marnie Parson's choice of vocabulary. But the text is neither simplistic nor contrived. It has a depth of language that seems of another time and place and perhaps that is what it is supposed to convey. Veselina Tomova's artwork supports that spirit including such elements as a sextant and old-fashioned telescope in PB's scientific tools. Veselina Tomova's etchings also have a grittiness of a time and place less sterile than today, more earthy and humble, and totally appropriate for the story of PB's Comet.

PB's Comet has an important message about following your own path and passions, even those not supported by your community. The reader can feel PB's intention and passion for the stars and elements of the night sky, as well as the old goat's indignation, perhaps because it feels threatened, with a young sheep who doesn't follow the path of the others. Still, young readers will realize that the lamb can do astronomy, even if there are those who oppose her efforts and even sabotage them, and it's this message that should be heeded.

PB's Comet is funny, rhythmic and imaginative, but more than that, for lambs, girls and those pursuing their passions, PB's Comet has an important message about self-actualization that teachers and parents would do well to share.

Polly MacCauley's Finest Divinest Woolliest Gift of All

Written by Sheree Fitch

Illustrated by Darka Erdelji

Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides

978-1-927917-10-7

68 pp.

Ages 5-8

June 2017

Before Sheree Fitch even begins to tell her story, she invites "Listeners Young and Old" to enjoy her yarn.

Tales are for telling and the truth may be tall,
My yarn is for spinning as the earth spins for all. 

This is a yarn for
   a windy night
      or a rainy day
         or any old time
            or a circle of souls
               or a broken lonely heart– 

so hunker down by a crackling fire and read aloud just to yourself
or share my yarn with those you love. (pg. 5)

Her yarn begins with the joyful first "Baa" bleated by a very special lamb born in the village of River John. It's a sound that

"...wrapped round that village 
like a ribbon of joy 
     a warm woolly scarf 
          or a magical spell from a long ago fairy tale" (pg. 8)

Meanwhile in the small countship of Woodland, the greedy Count Woolliam and his sister Woolamina, the Countess of Fleece and Fluff, are ruminating over the status of their flock and whether there will be sufficient wool for all their woolly needs: robes, sweaters, hats, socks, blankets, rugs, tissues and more.  They too hear that first "Baa" and head out in search of that special lamb, determined to take it for their own.

From Polly MacCauley's Finest Divinest Woolliest Gift of All 

by Sheree Fitch 

illus. by Darka Erdelji

Polly MacCauley, a woman rarely seen and about whom the grownups often whisper and the children wonder, who did "extra-ordinary, wild and wondrous things with W-O-O-L" (pg. 18), hears that same "Baa" and is thrilled to realized that she would soon be able to knit her "finest, most divinest, woolliest gift of all." (pg. 23)

But, after the lamb's mother dies and her mournful cries are heard around the world, Star–as she is named by Farmer John's family–feels disconnected and good for nothing.  That is until Polly, venturing out for the first time in ages, visits Farmer John's farm.  Though there is a potential conflict when the Count and Countess demand the lamb, they are moved by the love that the village of River John feels for Star (it's a woolly Grinch moment: "Something, some hole in his greedy brittle heart, stitched together."; pg. 53) and Star goes home with her new mama, Polly.

The magic is just beginning, though, because Star grows a very thick coat of fleece daily which Polly shears and uses to work on her masterpiece, as well as the plethora of wool projects Polly and her new knitting group undertake for the newborns, children and fishermen of River John and the people of the world. "Like love, there is always enough wool to go around." (pg. 57)

From Polly MacCauley's Finest Divinest Woolliest Gift of All 

by Sheree Fitch 

illus. by Darka Erdelji

And, though there is finally great purpose and much happiness with some sorrow still to come in Star's life, it is Polly MacCauley's gift to Mother Earth that will become the true star of the story, there "wherever and whenever someone needs a bit of wool or a bit of warmth or maybe the piecing together of a sad and lonely heart" (pg. 65).

Polly MacCauley's Finest Divinest Woolliest Gift of All is an atypical picture book.  Though the illustrations by Slovenian artist and former St. John's resident Darka Erdelji add the whimsy and ethereal fiber to Sheree Fitch's story, this tale is lengthy and text extensive and not a quick read before bedtime.  It is, however, a read-aloud story of story-telling breadth, deep and involved and rich with the essence of life.  It has love, sadness, grief, death, conflict, compassion and hope, so much hope.  There will be cheers and tears and bleats of appreciation for a story of history and connectedness, generosity and inspiration.  Sheree Fitch, whose poetry I have long admired, can turn a phrase with such adeptness that readers will feel the tugs on their own heart yarns and the weaving of a blanket of comfort and contentment.  And though Polly MacCauley's Finest Divinest Woolliest Gift of All is firmly rooted in the Maritimes of her home, Sheree Fitch has woven a story for the world in both context and spirit.

From Polly MacCauley's Finest Divinest Woolliest Gift of All 

by Sheree Fitch 

illus. by Darka Erdelji

🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎

If you're fortunate enough to live near or be visiting the Maritimes, consider stopping it at Mabel Murple's Book Shoppe and Dreamery in River John, Nova Scotia, a specialty bookstore just opened this month by Sheree Fitch and featuring Atlantic Canadian books in all genres as well as Canadian children's books.