How Animals Sleep

by Jiří Dvořák, Marie Štumpfová

Genres: Children's, Non-fiction
Pages: 40
Rating:

Synopsis:

How do animals sleep? Curious young minds will be fascinated to discover the amazing variety of ways the animals featured in this picture book sleep. Some sleep nearly all the time while others hardly at all; some sleep underwater while others standing on one leg; some sleep in snow while others in the baking hot desert. . .

How Animals Sleep invites inquiry and comparison between the animals and their sleep behaviors plus reflection on how we as humans get rest.

I don’t read a lot of kids’ books, but Jiří Dvořák’s How Animals Sleep kept drawing my eye on my library’s Comics Plus subscription, so… I decided to read it for the art at least. The art (done by Marie Stumpfova) is very cute, and though the facts about how animals sleep are terribly complex or surprising, I found the descriptions surprisingly sweet and lyrical. Here’s an example:

Mommy otter places her baby onto her belly and together the two close their eyes… Above them, stars peek through holes in their dark blanket, beneath them, their briny bed rocks them till morning.

That’s partly down to the translation by Benjamin Lovett, I’m sure, but the sentiments and ideas are from the original.

A nicely done little book. Not sure about anything like reading age (since that kind of thing is out of my usual area for reviewing books), but would recommend checking it out if you think it sounds nice.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)