The team behind Sheep in a Jeep delivers an original twist with this charming take on bedtime.
Blues and golds dominate the pages as the fluffy white heroes return to their shed: "Winking fireflies light the way,/ as sheep stroll home to hit the hay." The five sheep tuck under the straw in their cozy shed. Then "Screeches! Rustling! Noisy crickets!/ Sheep hear hoots from nearby thickets." Margot Apple draws the culprits in colored pencils--a pair of owls--plus a creeping skunk near the shed, and the shadow of another unknown four-legged critter. Luckily, the four legs belong to a "trusty" border collie ("Sheep bleet. Sheep sigh"). As the collie helps the sheep fall asleep, Nancy Shaw works in a bit of a math and grammar lesson. The collie's hug helps one sheep snore, and the dog fetches a drink for another (that one slumbers, too). "Another sheep begins to snore./ Two asleep! How many more?" Shaw uses "how many more?" as a refrain, to check in with readers after each sheep falls asleep. She also gets across, in context, that "sheep" can refer to one and also more than one. Author and artist vary the examples: the collie, sandwiched between two sheep, "calms the flock" when they "tap rhythm, hum, and rock" a lullaby. When the five well-rested sheep awake at sunrise, they find the devoted (exhausted) pooch still asleep.
Shaw's meter never falters, and Apple's drawings keep the woolly quintet (and their canine guardian) front and center. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness