This hypnotic, poetic bedtime picture-book classic by the legendary Charlotte Zolotow was originally published in 1958 with striking illustrations by Ukrainian graphic designer Vladimir Bobri (What Is Red?). Here, the Bodleian Library reissues the original Sleepy Book, sure to win over another generation.
"Bears/ sleep/ in/ their/ dark/ caves/ the long/ winter/ through." The big words in all capital letters (a "hand-cut blockletter") stack to form an organic, creature-like shape on a solid gray page. The actual creature, on the opposite page, is a hibernating bear, a cozy snoozer in a snow-covered, kidney-bean-shaped cave. The coziness is contagious; preschooler eyelids may be drooping already. "Pigeons/ sleep/ in/ a row/ pressing/ against/ each other/ for/ warmth." That graphic pile-up of words is an effective design trick: the word placement visually reflects "row" and "pressing against each other." As the pages turn, readers will see that fish sleep with their eyes and mouths wide open and "moths/ sleep/ with wings/ folded together/ they look like/ little/ white leaves/ on walls/ and windows." (They really do.) Horses sleep standing up, seals snooze with their flippers flat against ice. Children will feel a sweet kinship with the animal world--everyone sleeps!
The playful illustrations (a lily-pad frog is wide awake watching the snowy crane sleep, for example) echo a linocut-print or cut-paper style with their bold shapes and artful compositions. The most adorable has to be the caterpillar in its silky cocoon--or, if you're more of a people person, the girl and boy snugly tucked in bed, "warm under their blankets." --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness