Dr Seuss's Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.20 You Save: $6.75 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.13 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Dr Seuss's Sleep Book
Book Review: Try not to yawn while reading this. Just try.
Summary: 5 Stars
Naptime just got epic.
This isn't Goodnight Moon bidding farewell to a series of objects--this is Dr. Seuss doing a sleep-time story, and he doesn't mess around.
Exaggerations aside, the Sleep Book actually has a very nice narrative hook, focusing on fake news reports and the knowledge of how infections yawns are. Even talking about yawning makes you want to yawn, and as the story moves from mentioning who's yawning, then who's getting ready for bed, then who's already asleep, it creates a sort of rising action even if the action is just going to bed. The first page has this neat proviso where the narrator says,
"This may not seem
Very important, I know.
But it is. So I'm bothering
Telling you so."
The "this is why I'm taking the time to talk about this subject" lines crop up a few more times, adding a certain rhythm to the story, and also making the kids in the reading audience pay attention because important stuff is happening.
So the single yawn spreads and the "news reports" show all the different places where sleepiness is taking hold. Birds are building nighttime nests out of bricks, two balls of fluff are brushing their teeth, a drawbridge draw-er has drawn up his drawbridge, and the world is settling down. Then the hustle and bustle is over and Sleep Reports are given on who is actually asleep already, and all the sleeping characters and groups of creatures are adorable and have memorable quirks.
This book is guaranteed to make a kid sleepy because there's a lot of positive peer pressure toward falling asleep. The narrator says it's an especially good night for sleeping--everybody's doing it!--and the number of sleepers steadily grows. All the fanciful creatures are smiling slightly, making sleep seem extra inviting and the book closes out on a direct invitation to join the ranks of the sleepers:
"When you put out your light,
Then the number will be
Ninety-nine zillion
Nine trillion and three.
Good night."
Hope y'all like this one as much as my family always has. I'm off to take a nap.
Book Review: absolutely mesmerizing
Summary: 5 Stars
This is possibly the best of Dr. Seuss. It was my favorite as a child, and it is my favorite today.Many of Seuss' books focus on characters and stories (Cat in the Hat), or on his delightful wordplay (Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish). The Sleep Book focuses instead on almost pure imagination.
Because of this, it may not have quite the marketing potential of his other books. There is no mascot, no catch-phrase. You won't find a Sleep Book t-shirt or plush toy.
What you will find here are lavish illustrations - huge surreal landscapes with impossible creatures sleeping in every available nook and cranny. You will find an exploration of an entire world of creatures as each prepares for the night in its own unique way.
You will also find creatures who are not quite perfect little sleepers. If your child is a sleepwalker, a sleeptalker, or a snorer, they will find creatures who do this every night as a sport. With this simple elegant device, Dr. Seuss manages to comfort children who may have these difficulties in his delightfully subtle fashion.
I know of no other book that is quite so good at putting a noisy mind to rest. Maybe Goodnight Moon. Maybe.
Every creature that sleeps should own this book.
Book Review: 5 Stars
Shake myself awake again to tell my sleepy view... of Dr. Seuss's "Sleep Book," a childhood favorite that has survived all the insomniac years of growing up and turning a bit more vintage. So many of my childhood books have vanished somewhere along that winding time-route... somewhere on those many travels and address changes, moved from one previous life to another former life to another life begun today. Lost, but for this one. And when a family pet took a toothy chomp along the binding, no matter, I had to buy another. Children's book? Ah, for the child in all of us! For we all sleep, and we all dream. The first stretchy yawn is as delicious as the final one, and the overall feel of this Seussian masterpiece is cozy, and warm, and comforting. I remember well my fascination with the unique characters as a child, with all their quirky sleep routines. I found them fully as endearing when reading the book, over and over again, to my own children. With anticipation of grandchildren looming somewhere within the next decade... I look forward to sharing these cozy yawns with yet another generation. The book is a timeless classic.Book Review: Some kind of weird voodoo magic
Summary: 5 Stars
Dr Seuss' Sleep Book is amazing. I picked up a copy when my oldest child was about two years old, and it has always held her attention until she drifted off to sleep. My daughter is six now and, along with her two younger siblings, still loves this book.Our favorite character is Snorter McPhail. The kids say he reminds them of their father... while I agree that he does bear a resemblance to my husband, I think I just like the concept of Snorter wearing a large bucket on his head, conducting a snoring orchestra - the "snore-a-snort band" - in a cave way out of town, all while he is asleep.
This book has some kind of weird voodoo magic that really does put kids (and sometimes grownups) to sleep. In the years that I've been reading the story to my children, they have almost never made it through the entire book before drifting off, and the few times they have made it through awake, they're extremely drowsy by the end. Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book has been read so often that the binding is starting to come loose, but we'll just keep reading it until it falls apart, then buy another copy.
Book Review: The Genius of Dr. Seuss
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss in general, but this underappreciated gem is without a doubt my favorite of all.
The poetry is outstanding, and appeals to kids from 0 to 80. "At a fork in the road, near the vale of va-vode / Five foot-weary salesmen have laid down their loads / All day they've raced round in the heat at top speeds / unsuccessfully trying to sell zizzer-zoof seeds / which nobody wants because nobody needs / tomorrow will come, they'll go back to their chore / they'll start on the road zizzer-zoofing once more"
The illustrations are excellent, typical Seuss whimsy.
Best of all, this book WORKS. I mean, it gets your kid sleepy. It's pretty long, but that just adds to the effect. The lazy rhymes, the pictures and stories of yawning and sleeping creatures, the escalating count ("our who's-asleep-score is now way past the millions..."), the length...it all has the effect of detaching their mind from the stuff that happened that day, expanding into the realm of imagination and.....zzzzzzz.......