Sleep Like a Tiger

This deeply satisfying story offers what all children crave when letting go--security and a trusted companion.

This may put little ones to sleep, but they’ll have a lot to look at before they close their eyes.

It’s impossible to see everything the first or tenth time, ensuring that parents never lose interest and that wide-awake children will have little choice but to eventually join our little girl, curled in her nest, wings folded like a bat, in a warm spot like the cat, fast asleep, like the strong tiger. Night-night. 

"I'm not tired," says a small girl in a red dress and a crown. "I'm just not sleepy." Her affectionate parents--who also wear crowns--aren't fazed. "They nodded their heads and said she didn't have to go to sleep. But she had to put her pajamas on." The three talk about the different ways animals sleep, taking their cue from family pets and the girl's stuffed animals. Zagarenski's gently surreal jewel-box paintings chart the movement of the girl's imagination as she considers bears ("mighty sleepers," her parents call them), snails ("They curl up like a cinnamon roll"), and tigers. "When he's not hunting, he finds some shade, closes his eyes, and sleeps. That way he stays strong," she says. It's this image that holds the greatest promise of safety for the girl; as she drifts off, she imagines herself curled in the curve of the tiger's tail, embracing a stuffed tiger as she sleeps. Zagarenski's paintings take Logue's story to places marvelously distant in thought and time; each spread holds treasures to find even after several readings. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)

The common theme of a child not ready for bed receives fresh treatment here. When a young girl repeatedly declares that she is not sleepy, her parents remain calm. She dutifully dresses in pajamas and washes up. After climbing into bed, she again proclaims that she is wide awake and questions her parents about how things in the world go to sleep. They patiently respond by describing the sleeping habits of familiar animals. After they kiss her goodnight and turn out the light, the child incorporates her parents' descriptions of the various animals into her nighttime routine. Like the strong tiger, she, too, falls fast asleep. The narrative flows well as the mood becomes increasingly tranquil. There is much dialogue in the first portion of the story. These conversations between daughter and parents are realistic. Young listeners will identify with the child's desire to remain awake. Zagarenski's stylized artwork shines with interesting details. For instance, the family is portrayed as royalty. The artist's distinctive spreads are a combination of digitally created art and mixed-media paintings on wood. The artist incorporates many patterns into the characters' clothing, rooms, blankets, and pillows. Her attention to detail can be found again on the endpapers where primitive circuslike train cars, a tiger riding proudly atop one of them, appear in sunlight and later in moonlight. The dust jacket depicting the sleeping youngster curled up beside a dozing tiger ushers in the gentle and calm mood of this memorable picture book.—Lynn Vanca, Freelance Librarian, Akron, OH

"Logue's text is reassuring and rhythmic, but it is the fine detail and plush atmospherics of Zagarenski's layered multimedia illustrations that make the book shine." —New York Times Online