Books to Read... When You're Sleepy

Need a little help winding down at the end of the day? Brain buzzing with questions? Let the soothing illustrations, silly hijinks, and gentle language of these books get you in the right mindset to drift off to dreamland.

The Bedtime Book of Impossible Questions

Written by Isabel Thomas

Illustrated by Aaron Cushley

New York: Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2023. Informational. 95 pages.

Have you ever lain awake at night because you couldn't stop thinking about a certain topic or question? Everyone has been there. Enters The Bedtime Book of Impossible Questions to set your mind at ease. Loosely encyclopedic with whimsical illustrations, this book sets out to answer impossible questions, such as: "How do we know that unicorns never existed?," "Do wasps know they hurt people when they sting?," and "How big is the universe?" So whether it's you personally or an inquisitive young one, prepare to have curiosity appeased and the stage set for a more restful night of sleep.

Good Night, Body

By Britney Winn Lee and Borghild Fallberg

Nashville: Thomas Nelson, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, 2023. Informational.

Sometimes finding a way to calm down a restless body is integral to being able to peacefully head to dreamland. Good Night, Body ushers the reader through a series of motions chosen to help in this bedtime process. Individual parts of the body are addressed throughout the book, for example: "Hello, face. May you be slouchy like a blanket. Smooth any forehead wrinkles and fluff out those cheeks," culminating in a consciously relaxed body.

The Night Tent

By Landis Blair

New York: Margaret Ferguson Books, Holiday House, 2023. Picture Book.

The Night Tent offers a peculiarly magical take on the nighttime journey of a young boy after he takes refuge under his quilt and finds a fantastical land. Following a path illuminated by stars, his adventure becomes increasingly wonderous until he journeys back home, comes out from under his quilt, and immediately falls asleep.

The Stack

By Vanessa Roeder

New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2022. Picture Book.

The Stack begins with a girl on a determined mission. Her mission? To stack items as high as possible. But what could she possibly be trying to reach that requires her to stack her neighbor's house, a whale, and her grandpa's station wagon? Sweetly rhyming text combined with humorous dialogue bubbles scattered throughout, this book is sure to be a repeat read aloud request.

Comments

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...

Review: Super Boba Cafe

Super Boba Café By Nidhi Chanani New York: Amulet Books, 2023. Comics. 215 pages. 14-year-old Aria is excited to spend her summer in San Francisco getting quality time with her Nainai. She loves helping at her grandmother's Super Boba Café. But she can't help but notice that her grandmother is acting strange and secretive. She refuses to let Aria into the kitchen at all and she disappears at the same time each night without telling Aria where she goes. Meanwhile, Aria is eager to drum up more business for Super Boba Café. She gets a major windfall when the shop cat, Bao, surprises them by having kittens, and Aria realizes this is a major social media opportunity. She knows this will help Nainai's shop, but she is apprehensive to get back on social media after a terrible cyberbullying experience she had back home. As the shop starts to get busier, Nainai is more and more anxious about her secret project. This prompts Aria to investigate with help from her Nainai's neighb...

Plain Kate

Plain Kate by Erin Bow Scholastic, 2010. 314 pgs. Fiction Katerina Svetlana is named after her mother, who died giving birth. Her father, Piotr the woodcarver, calls her plain Kate and she is soon known as Plain Kate, after the butcher's witticism, because she is "plain as a stick." But her father calls her Kate, my star. Piotr teaches his daughter to carve and she is on her way to becoming a master when her father dies of a strange sleeping sickness that plagues her town and the country round about. In a magical land, Kate has no magic but her skill. Still, she is so good her neighbors think her a witch and drive her away, but not before a real witch comes along and she trades him her shadow for the promise that she won't have to travel alone. He gives her a talking cat. Kate falls in with gypsies who also find reason to hurt and abandon her and she is rescued by the witch who takes her upriver in a terrible quest to avenge his dead sister and bring her back from...

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