A children's book blog by Miriam Rainwater

A children's book blog by Miriam Rainwater

"TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they'll have with twenty-six. Open your child's imagination. Open a book." ~ Author Unknown

Friday, July 22, 2011

The World CHAMPION of Staying Awake

The World Champion of Staying AwakeTitle: The World Champion of Staying Awake
Author: Sean Taylor
Illustrator: Jimmy Liao
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication Date: June 28, 2011

When I saw a new release on the kids' shelf at Barnes and Noble from Candlewick Press, I had to check it out.  I love Candlewick, and their books have proven to be some of my favorites over these past few months. 

The World Champion of Staying Awake definitely met my expectations.  This delightful picture book combines a prose narrative with a bit of poetry.  The mix of genres is uncommon in children's literature today, especially done well, but author Sean Taylor has created a lovely multi-genre tale. 

Stella is having a problem.  When Daddy says that it's time to go to bed, Stella cannot sleep.  Who could sleep if they had Thunderbolt the Mouse, Beanbag Frog, or Cherry Pig to get to sleep first? 

Stella will just have to outsmart them--with poetry!  Only Stella could make a pillow a ship, a shoe box a train, and a toy basket a hot air balloon headed for the land of sleep.  Will ANYONE be The World Champion of Staying Awake or will Stella trick them all?

Jimmy Liao's bright and textured illustrations capture the mischievous and cleaver actions of one little girl.  Children will love how her bedroom can be transformed into so many different worlds.

This is a great book to read to your youngsters the next time they are trying to be The World Champion of Staying Awake; you might just be able to use it to fool them, too! And for helping you do that, I'm sure that you'd give it five stars!


Have your children ever been world champions for staying awake? What did you do?

3 comments:

  1. Hi, Miriam!
    Our two boys always liked to prolong bedtime, but truth be told, I think it's because they looked forward to prayers with us (which were LOOONNNNNGGGG, sometimes fun and always loving and inspirational plus education) and then we had storytime. They REALLY loved having stories read to them, and that's when they fell happily and soundly asleep.

    There's nothing like being put to sleep at night by the voice of someone that loves you as they read a story of adventure or mystery and you drift off into dreamland...

    By the way, thanks for visiting my blog. I'm glad you liked my posting about "Mr. Popper's Penguins GIVEAWAY". Aren't you going to follow me back on my blog? I sure would appreciate it if you would. PWETTY PWEEZE?

    God bless and have a great weekend.

    In His Love,
    Cynde
    http://cyndes-got-the-write-stuff.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi again.
    I don't understand why I can't sign it with Google. I hope you'll be able to find me again.

    Just copy & paste my blog's url if it won't sign in this time, okay?

    Thanks and God bless.
    Cynde
    http://cyndes-got-the-write-stuff.blogspot.com/

    P.S. Aha! I think I finally got it "write" this time. Praise the Lord!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cynde,
    Thanks so much for your comment. I have been trying and trying to get that fixed so that people can comment with Google or OpenID. I don't know what is up. All my settings are open comment-wise. Sorry that it gave you trouble, but I hope you will continue to visit and comment.

    As for following you, I did, but it didn't actually show up on your page (more technical difficulties, I suppose!). It did, however, show up on my Google Reader feed, so I look forward to keeping up with your posts. I also followed you on Twitter.

    Hope you have a great day!

    ReplyDelete