The World Champion of Staying Awake by Sean Taylor and Jimmy Liao

"Good night, Stella," says Dad.
"Time to go to bed."

But how can Stella go to bed?
She still has Cherry Pig,
Thunderbolt the puppet mouse and Beanbag Frog to get to sleep.

Does this seem familiar to any parent? You want to go to bed, just like Stella does here (I'm sure), but you can't until you get your boisterous children off to sleep.

That's one of the things I love about this book: Stella playing the parent.

I said "one of the things" because there are many things I love about this book. It's filled with wonderful gems that 'younger' people can say, particular at bedtime like "Sleep is too slow!" and "Is jelly made from jellyfish?" and "How many years is it to my birthday?"

In amongst all the playful fun, Stella has a skillful plan. She will play imaginary games with the toys designed to lull them to sleep. In these sections she dreams her pillow into a ship, "and it is..." Then a shoebox into a train, "and it is..." and finally her basket into a balloon "and it is..."

I love the "and it is..." parts, because when you're playing these games, who's to say it's not? but each section of imagination sees the (already very cute) illustrations spread right to the edges of the page, and a rhythmic rhyme starts, nice and slow, describing all the wonderful things the toys see on their dream journeys.

And guess what? One by one they fall asleep!

And she tucks them, one by one, into bed.

So the wold champion of staying awake
must actually be Stella.

Or perhaps not.

 

4.5 Gold Stars

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