I forgot how to sleep

A resourceful child struggles to fall asleep. "I must have forgotten how to sleep. No matter how hard I try, I'm still awake." But red-haired, pink-skinned Lucy isn't going to just lie there and take it. The young narrator decides to repeat the nighttime wind-down routine--"Maybe I skipped a step when I was getting ready for bed?" Lucy sheds pajamas, (re?)brushes teeth, puts the jammies back on, and (again?) says good night to Dad (who seems to be a single parent), but it's no use: Lucy just isn't sleepy. The child decides to take a walk to "clear my head" and indirectly finds a solution. (A bear and a book are involved.) This is an original and dryly witty take on the can't-get-to-sleep tale, and Zocca's art, which has cartoon-clean lines and a punchy green-and-purple--heavy palette, does some of the storytelling. A wordless gag involves the family dog, who makes off with a pillow but doesn't even need it to fall asleep in an armchair; meanwhile, poor wide-awake Lucy, who's lying on the back of the chair in perfect, purposeful imitation of the pooch, can't catch a break. Part of Lucy's charm is the youngster's less-than-cute look: Zocca tops Lucy's head with a scraggly bun and gives the child a noticeably weak chin that hardly hinders Lucy's determination. Well worth staying awake for.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.