While You Are Sleeping (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreS–While a little girl sleeps, toy animals describe their nighttime activities on her behalf: checking under the bed for monsters, pulling up the covers, scaring away bad dreams, preventing her from waking when Santa comes, and more. Their repayment is the love they receive as bedside toys. The soft-focus artwork verges on being overly dark at times, but it has a lot of nice texture, and the spread of the stuffed animals huddled together in the dark, with fearful, glowing eyes, works beautifully. While the story is slight, the gentle text flows well and will please children who fantasize about their playthings coming alive while they slumber.–Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

PreS. A child can sleep from dusk to dawn, but for her bedside toys, the work goes on. Five stuffed animals collectively describe how they spend their nights working (unbeknownst to the child) to make sure their charge, a young girl, sleeps well. Their tasks include checking the cupboards, corners, and under the bed (if they are feeling brave); making sure that the girl is comfortable and that she doesn't wake up on the night Santa appears. The scariest things are bedbugs, which are easily squashed (but not shown) and bad dreams (also not shown), which are scared away when the toys don such things as a badminton birdie and goofy sunglasses. The final scene, in which the girl awakens to cuddle the animals, shows why they are devoted to their jobs. The muted colors and the sketchy loose style of the pastel-type artwork pairs well with the gentle text, and the idea of having such capable creatures standing guard gives the whole a comforting, old-fashioned feeling. Randall Enos
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 36 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374383308
• ISBN-13: 978-0374383305
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,017,052 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a well thought-out and touching book!, January 20, 2007

By	Marci Twain (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

I loved this book. When I got to the end I actually had a little swelling around my eyes - almost cried. It was 20 pages long. The text was superb, and the illustrations were fitting for the story.

The story is about a little girl's dolls and toys that she keeps in her bedroom. They seem to have a life of their own when the little girl sleeps at night. They have their chores and they look out for their owner, the little girl.

I'm sure preschool kids will love this book. Maybe I would have liked it better if the illustrations had not been as "hazy" as they were, but I do not have any idea how they would have to be done to improve upon my experience of reading the book. 5 stars!