Book Review: Can’t Sleep Without Sheep – by Susanna Leonard Hill

Book Review: Can’t Sleep Without Sheep
Author: Susanna Leonard Hill
Illustrator: Mike Wohnoutka
Genre: Children’s picture book
Pages: 32 pages
Publisher: Walker & Company
Released: September 2010
Price: $16.99 US
My Rating: Gorgeous in words and illustrations, funny, wonderful for
children of all ages

 

Some back-story to this review: All during January I was participating in Month Of Poetry (M.O.P.), and one of the poems I wrote (during and after a night of very little sleep) was about counting sheep. The first of its thirteen verses goes like this:
I want to sleep, I cannot sleep
My brain won’t understand
I count some sheep, then count more sheep
Enough to fill the land.

I tell you that to tell you this: Almost four weeks later I read a post on This Kid Reviews Books, where Erik reviewed a book by Susanna Leonard Hill, and at the end he mentioned a couple other of her books. This one, Can’t Sleep Without Sheep, grabbed my attention for the above-mentioned reasons. Then when I watched the trailer for it I absolutely had to have this book! It is funny, adorable, exquisitely illustrated, and so fun to read.

Ava has a hard time going to sleep, her mind is just too busy, so she counts sheep. The problem is that it still takes Ava so long to get to sleep that the sheep complain they are getting too tired jumping the fence so she can count them. They quit! Not wanting to leave little Ava without something to count on, they try to find other animals to replace them, and what happens next is hilarious. Pigs, horses, penguins, and the list goes on. So very enjoyable.

The day my husband brought Can’t Sleep Without Sheep in from our mailbox, I couldn’t wait to read it. When I read this book through for the first time I also read it to my husband because I wanted to share it with him, and I laughed out loud at the antics, the surprises and the amazing and hilarious illustrations. It’s even better than the trailer reveals. I have to say, the author and illustrator are a great team for this story.

This is a completely gorgeous book. An added bonus is that if you go to Susanna’s website: http://www.susannahill.com/books.html you will find activities that go with the story and that you can print off for children to do.

When I ordered Can’t Sleep Without Sheep I had in mind that I would keep it for my grandson to read when he is visiting us, but as much as I hate to part with it (and may yet buy a second one for myself) I will be giving this copy to my little guy for Valentine’s Day. In my opinion, he just has to have this book! I hope he loves it as much as Grandma does. 🙂

You can find Can’t Sleep Without Sheep listed on my BUY THE BOOK! page.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 


8 thoughts on “Book Review: Can’t Sleep Without Sheep – by Susanna Leonard Hill”

    1. You’re welcome, Erik. Yes .. the illustrations are wonderful! When our local bookstore gets a few of these in – because I was asking for it – I think I will have to buy my own copy. 🙂

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  3. Lynn, I just wanted to thank you so much for your lovely review! I’m so glad you enjoyed the book, and I hope your grandson does too! It is fairly rare in the world of picture books for authors to get much feedback from their readers – half of them are too young to write and the other half too busy 🙂 So I can’t tell you how much it means to me to know you liked it! Thank you, thank you! 🙂

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