From Publishers Weekly
Good night, little lambs. Go to sleep, a mother says to the 10 children sleeping over at her house. That endearment prompts one child to dream about a wild and wooly slumber party of sheep. McGinty's (the Dogs Helping People series) rhyming verse and Sweet's (Bouncing Time) vibrant watercolors describe a madcap countdown: Ten little lambs who won't go to sleep. What will they do all night? They'll tackle and tumble, and wrestle and rumble. Ten little lambs, all night. On each spread, one lamb falls asleep, leaving his peers to continue the high jinks. The verse can be awkward (of the grouping of five, McGinty writes, They'll build a skyscraper with oatmeal and paper), but the visuals compensate nicely. Sweet dresses the lambs in the pajamas worn by the child party-goers; she plants a big yawn on the lamb next destined for dreamland; and she shows the sleepers' faces in thumbnail portraits set into spreads portraying the late-night romping. Thanks partly to her frothy sherbet tones and playful penciling, the ovine guests exude good humor and guilelessness amid the mayhem. Rarely has naughtiness seemed quite so innocent. Ages 2-6.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
reSchool-Grade 1-When Mom turns off the light and says, "Good night, little lambs. Go to sleep," the scene is set for 10 children at a sleepover to transform into lambs ready for a night of fun until, one by one, they grow tired and drift off to sleep. Readers may be reminded of the rhythmic repetition common to several of Bill Martin's stories. Listeners will quickly detect the pattern and join in. Sweet's watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations are created on Arches hot-pressed paper, and, although at times a bit busy, they reflect the action of the text. They also add to the repetition by reflecting the number of "lambs" asleep in scattered circles around the pages, as well as the action of the wakeful youngsters. While the art is too cluttered for children just learning to count, young readers will enjoy finding all of the characters.
Cathie E. Bashaw, Somers Library, NYCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
