In this clever role reversal sure to strike a chord with preschoolers, a girl calls for a savanna-wide siesta, much to the dismay of its inhabitants.
"I don't want to have a nap," says a zebra, the lines of its furrowed brow making angles against its horizontal stripes. "Naps are for little babies," a crotchety crocodile offers. "Tiny little babies," adds a hippo. With the barest gestural black outlines in gouache, and saturated colors only where needed, Moüy gets across the emotional resistance of each animal, often highlighting its main characteristic. An elephant so large its head is cut off at the top of the page cries, "I'm too big to have a nap," while an ostrich hides its head in a hole ("I'm not even here") and a gazelle leaps off the right-hand side of the page so that only its hind legs and horns show ("I don't have time for a nap"). Children will love guessing the lion's excuse: "Kings don't take naps," of course. Because Moüy never labels the animals, children can also figure out which animal would respond, "Ha, ha, ha. A nap? What a joke!" (A hyena, naturally.) One of the funniest pairings features only the neck of the giraffe, high in the treetops ("I'm too tall to have a nap"), while a monkey perches on one of its branches ("and I'm too busy").
Children will be delighted when the resourceful girl outsmarts them all. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness