Snooze-o-rama The strange ways that animals sleep

PreS-Gr 3--Did you know that meerkat families sleep in a big comfy pile? Or that ants take quick naps up to 250 times each day? In this informational picture book, young readers discover all of the unusual and funny ways that animals get their rest. Each spread features an animal species on the verso with a human child on the recto, each engaging in their own nighttime routine. The tender illustrations employ rich, saturated colors. The snoozing animals have personalities but are realistically drawn. The children are depicted with light, tan, and dark skin tones and are engaged in recognizable and universal bedtime activities, such as cuddling a stuffed toy. Readers are encouraged to keep turning the pages in order to find out how the next animal sleeps in comparison to its human counterpart. A variety of mammal, bird, reptile, and insect species are featured. Whether feathered, furred, or pajamaed, snoozing is a top priority. VERDICT A fun and factual title, sure to be a bedtime favorite.--Alyssa Annico, Youngstown State Univ., OH

One dozen common sleeping habits or rituals in human beings are compared to those of a dozen different nonhuman animals. The first page warns readers to quiet down since the animals in the book are sleepy and need to rest. A few more brief sentences conversationally introduce the book's premise. However, the book is far from a bedtime story. Even that initial page sports vividly colored sleepy animals, and they are yawning and stretching over a background that is several shades brighter than lavender. The facing page sets up a pleasant, repeating pattern. Instead of the full bleed of the verso, stark white frames a roughly hewn oblong, within which a cartoon child snuggles in a bedroom in solid hues of cool-palette colors. "While you cover yourself with a blanket…" begins the litany, "…an otter wraps itself in seaweed," proclaims black print over a background of rippling blues upon the page turn. Three seaweed-swaddled sea otters drift below a short, informative paragraph that compares the use of the seaweed to both a blanket and a boat's anchor. The text's tone is lighthearted, with humorous word choices conveying fascinating facts. How imaginative to compare a child pulling on pajamas to a parrotfish nightly "burping up" its protective coating of slime! Upbeat graphics provide a wide range of human diversity, including one White child who uses a wheelchair and a family that appears to be multiracial. Quirky, informative, and far from soporific. (Informational picture book. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.