Authors and artists like to debate what matters most to a picture book, the story or the pictures. Most of us know it isn’t that simple. The most successful picture books—meaning, the most well loved and most often read ones—have both. The story and the pictures work together. It is rare to find a perfect mix of words and colors. Suzanne Slade’s Animals Are Sleeping is perfection.
The story is simple and in a picture book, simple is best. Slade’s language is quiet, soothing, and rhythmic. She’s captured “going to sleep” perfectly in rhyme, and it works.
Gary R. Phillips’ pictures are astonishingly beautiful. Shades of dusk-falling blue and pink spill over the animal kingdom, putting them all to sleep in their appropriate nooks and crannies. They are positively dreamy—artistically and technically. They make me want to shut my eyes and dream of beautiful places. There’s a fuzzy essence to them that makes you feel a little swishy and dreamy!
The back matter offers details about where and how animals sleep. The information is appropriate to the subject and the age group. I donate a lot of review books to my local library. I’ve yet to donate a Sylvan Dell book and I’m not going to start with Animals Are Sleeping. It’s a keeper.
The above review was contributed by: Susan Sales Harkins: Susan is a Software consultant and the author of several articles and books on database technologies. She and her husband, William, collaborate on children's non-fiction. Click Here to read more of Susan’s Reviews.
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