From: Thompson, Lauren <LThompson>
Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 10:57:37 -0400

One of my favorite books is also a favorite of my toddler son, and that is
"Can't Sleep" by Chris Raschka (Orchard). The text is extremely minimal (at most perhaps 10 short lines per spread), and though some of the wonderful word play and page-turn choices make this a relatively "difficult" text, the plot and character and emotion and meaning of the book are completely transparent to my three-year old. For me, the text speaks much more to the childhood self than to the adult self, and I don't see this as often as I would like to in picture books. I especially love these lines: "When you can't sleep / when you now hear / your father turning / off the lights / and walking down / the hall and shutting / that door tight, / the moon with hear, / the moon will hear / this too." It's understood here what it means that the last of your family has gone to bed and no one is awake to be conscious of you. This is a particularly poignant issue for young children, because so much of their self-identity is dependent on others' perceptions of them. How wonderful that the words refer to this feeling but don't try to explain it. The text is speaking kid to kid, but with poetic precision and beauty. Combine this with illustrations that expand on the text while spotlighting the main characters emotions, and you have a powerful picture book.

Lauren Thompson Senior Editor Scholastic Press

Also author of: Mouse's First Christmas Love One Another: The Last Days of Jesus
Received on Thu 11 May 2000 09:57:37 AM CDT