Sleepsong - Hardcover

Lyon, George Ella

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689869738 ISBN 13: 9780689869730

Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 2008

Synopsis

It's time.

Bears, birds, cats, whales, oceans the earth itself must call it a day.

Just the time to pick out this book, climb on a lap, and listen.

Just the time to watch the light rise and fall at the corners of your eyes - to doze, to sigh, to say to this day, this one among many, shhhhhh shhhh good-bye.

About this title

About the Author:

George Ella Lyon is the author of Trucks Roll!, Planes Fly!, and Boats Float!, cowritten with her son Benn. Among George Ella’s other books are the ALA Notable All the Water in the World and What Forest Knows. A novelist and poet, she lives with her family in Lexington, Kentucky. Visit her online at GeorgeEllaLyon.com.

Peter Catalanotto has written seventeen books for children, including Monkey & Robot, More of Monkey & Robot, The Newbies, Question Boy Meets Little Miss Know-It-All, Ivan the Terrier, Matthew A.B.C., and Emily’s Art, of which School Library Journal said in a starred review, “whether viewed from afar or up close, this creative and heartfelt book is a masterpiece.” In 2008, First Lady Laura Bush commissioned Peter to illustrate the White House holiday brochure. He currently teaches the first children’s book writing course offered by both Columbia University and Pratt Institute. Peter has illustrated more than thirty books for other writers including George Ella Lyon, Cynthia Rylant, Mary Pope Osborne, Joanne Ryder, Robert Burleigh, and Megan McDonald. 

From School Library Journal:

PreS—Lyon and Catalanotto have teamed up again to depict another everyday occurrence in the life of a small child. A lyrical text tells of a mother and father preparing their child for bed: "Everything nests—"Shh shh/Everything rests shh/Time to turn in/—To put play away/Turn out the light—/Call it a day." All of the spreads show full-color paintings of the parents and their child on the upper portion and scenes of animals asleep in muted shades of blue and violet on the lower part. At the start of the book, when the father is playing with his daughter and the mother is readying the girl's bath, it is somewhat disconcerting to see baby animals huddled together with their eyes shut on the bottoms of the pages. It starts to make sense when specific animals are mentioned in the rhyme and their pictures are shown below: "Bee in the hive/Whale in the deep/ocean in motion/Cradling sleep." But it is confusing when the text reads "Hen on the roost," and the illustration shows a tiger, lion, gorilla, rabbit, pig, fox, dog, and hippo. The last spread features an assortment of sleeping baby animals superimposed over the dreaming child, and the effect is too busy. Although some children may like identifying the various sleeping critters, the dark pictures may seem spooky to others. Sheet music is provided for anyone who wants to sing the story, and readers can go to the author's Web site to hear it.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0689869738
• ISBN 13: 9780689869730
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Catalanotto Peter