Sleep Like a Tiger: A Soothing Bedtime Story About Falling Asleep for Children (Ages 4–8) (Caldecott Medal - Honors Winning Title(s)) - Hardcover

Logue, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0547641028 ISBN 13: 9780547641027

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2012

Synopsis

A 2013 Caldecott Honor Book

In this magical bedtime story, the lyrical narrative echoes a Runaway Bunny – like cadence: “Does everything in the world go to sleep?” the little girl asks. In sincere and imaginative dialogue between a not-at-all sleepy child and understanding parents, the little girl decides “in a cocoon of sheets, a nest of blankets,” she is ready to sleep, warm and strong, just like a tiger. The Caldecott Honor artist Pamela Zagarenski’s rich, luminous mixed-media paintings effervesce with odd, charming details that nonsleepy children could examine for hours. A rare gem.

About this title

About the Authors

Award-winning author Mary Logue has written more than twenty books for children. She lives on the Mississippi with writer Pete Hautman. This is her first book with Houghton Mifflin.

Pamela Zagarenski is the winner of two Caldecott Honors. The books she has illustrated have also been Booklist Editor's Choices, Horn Book Fanfare and Bulletin Blue Ribbon books, winners of Bank Street's Claudia Lewis Award, and translated into many languages. As well as illustrating picture books, she creates paintings and has a gift card line. She lives in Connecticut. Visit her online at pzagarenski.com, on Instagram @sacredbee, and Twitter @sacredbeez.

Reviews

PreS-Gr 1-The common theme of a child not ready for bed receives fresh treatment here. When a young girl repeatedly declares that she is not sleepy, her parents remain calm. She dutifully dresses in pajamas and washes up. After climbing into bed, she again proclaims that she is wide awake and questions her parents about how things in the world go to sleep. They patiently respond by describing the sleeping habits of familiar animals. After they kiss her goodnight and turn out the light, the child incorporates her parents' descriptions of the various animals into her nighttime routine. Like the strong tiger, she, too, falls fast asleep. The narrative flows well as the mood becomes increasingly tranquil. There is much dialogue in the first portion of the story. These conversations between daughter and parents are realistic. Young listeners will identify with the child's desire to remain awake. Zagarenski's stylized artwork shines with interesting details. For instance, the family is portrayed as royalty. The artist's distinctive spreads are a combination of digitally created art and mixed-media paintings on wood. The artist incorporates many patterns into the characters' clothing, rooms, blankets, and pillows. Her attention to detail can be found again on the endpapers where primitive circuslike train cars, a tiger riding proudly atop one of them, appear in sunlight and later in moonlight. The dust jacket depicting the sleeping youngster curled up beside a dozing tiger ushers in the gentle and calm mood of this memorable picture book.-Lynn Vanca, Freelance Librarian, Akron, OHα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

*Starred Review* A familiar childhood complaint (and frequent picture-book story line) becomes touched with enchantment in this luminous offering. It begins with “Once there was a little girl who didn’t want to sleep.” The girl’s parents say she doesn’t have to sleep but insist she put on her pj’s anyway. Once in bed (though not tired!), she asks about how animals sleep, and her parents talk to her about cats and bats, whales and snails. And when that conversation is finished, and she’s still not sleepy, her parents say she can stay up all night (in bed), but “the little girl’s bed was warm and cozy, a cocoon of sheets, a nest of blankets.” She finds a warm spot like a cat, folds her arms like the wings of a bat, curls up like a snail, and falls asleep like the animal who sleeps to be strong—the tiger. Logue’s lovely, poetic text, which is high flying but never highfalutin, twins well with Caldecott Honor illustrator Zagarenski’s inventive mixed-media artwork. As they did in Red Sings from Treetops (2011), Zagarenski’s characters wear crowns as they make their way through magical lands whose details have both weight and whimsy, the latter coming mostly through sweet details, though the full-page picture of the girl cuddled in a bird’s nest more than charms. This may put little ones to sleep, but they’ll have a lot to look at before they close their eyes. Preschool-Grade 1. --Ilene Cooper

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0547641028
• ISBN 13: 9780547641027
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Zagarenski Pamela
• Number of pages: 40