All the Awake Animals Are Almost Asleep - Hardcover

CRESCENT DRAGONWAGON is an award-winning author of more than 50 books, over half of them picture books, including Always, Always, which received the Parents' Choice Literary Honor, and the Coretta Scott King Award-winning Half a Moon and One Whole Star, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, which was a Reading Rainbow selection. She has also written two novels and several acclaimed cookbooks. The daughter of legendary children's book writer and editor Charlotte Zolotow, she published her first children's book at age 17 (Rainy Day Together, Harper, 1970). She lives in Vermont. Visit her online at www.dragonwagon.com.
DAVID MCPHAIL has been a passionate artist since the age of two. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and began illustrating books for children in 1972. Since then he has created dozens of beloved books, including the celebrated Mole Music, which was a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year, the bestselling If You Were My Bunny, Edward and the Pirates, Lost! and Drawing Lessons from a Bear. He lives in New Hampshire.

PreS-K-In this cozy alphabet/bedtime hybrid, a mother tucks her reluctant child into bed, offering examples of how other animals prepare for sleep to convince her little one to doze. The story begins and ends with the mother speaking in soothing rhyming verse; her alphabetized descriptions of "the awake animals getting sleepy" are non-rhyming but mostly alliterative, e.g., "Cat's curled up on a crimson couch cushion." Full-page watercolor and ink illustrations in soft, muted colors depict mildly stylized, drowsy animals (generally one, but sometimes two or three per letter). The large cursive capitals fit well into the overall design of the pages, noticeable but unobtrusive. With dozens, if not hundreds, of other alphabet books out there (including previous alphabet books by Dragonwagon and McPhail), it might be difficult to find room for one more, especially in smaller collections; however, if you are looking for new additions, this one is quietly pleasant.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NYα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.