GO TO SHEEP

One puffy little sheep is ready and
willing to help readers navigate to slumberland.

Playing on the associations of
counting sheep and making a silly substitution of “sheep” for “sleep,” this
rhyming catalog discusses ways to “go to sheep.” An all-knowing sheep narrator
shows two sibling sheep as well as readers how it’s done in bouncy rhyme, advising
them when to rest, of places to sleep, what to wear, and all about dreams, with
a final page showing the sheep trio tucked in and drifting off. Though it might
be too boisterous for actual bedtime reading, it’s fun to read aloud, with a
perky cadence and natural moments of drama, as when the sheep cozy up during a
thunderstorm in a recto captioned: “you can sheep all alone… / but sometimes
you can’t.” Deeply shaded watercolor vignettes with impressionistic detailing
make the sleepy sheep appear ultracomfy while containing enough slapstick to
hold readers’ interest: The narrator naps in heart-printed undies or dozes off
while leaning against a startled friend—though the two siblings dumping water
on the “grumpy” resting narrator edges toward mean-spirited. It’s a shame that
the illustrator genders the female sheep with those ubiquitous long eyelashes
and that it ends so specifically with “mama” doing the bedtime routine.

This pleasant going-to-bed book isn’t
essential, but it might be worth snuggling up to for a read. (Board book. 2-4)