One More Sheep

Farmer Sam owns 10 sheep. At bedtime, he needs to make sure they are all safe, but the counting of sheep works its famous magic: " 'One... two... three... four...'/ That's as far as/ he got before he/ started to snore." Sam's sleepiness does not amuse the ewes, who lean against a long pillow, to either side of the snoozing shepherd. " 'He always does that!'/ 'It's not that hard to count sheep!'/ 'Is there something about us that puts him to sleep?' " they ask one another. Meanwhile, in vertical panels along the page margins, a snickering wolf prepares to drop in. When the wolf knocks on the door, wearing a woolly costume, Sam rousts himself and assumes it's one of his herd. His desperate flock must find a way to keep him awake until he sees they're all accounted for, and a gatefold shows them staging a brisk one-to-10 performance. Kelly ("I Hate Everyone") works from a sturdy premise, but her rhyme's meter often misses a beat. Ayto ("The Witch's Children") nicely develops the suspense, cutting from the lethargic farmer to the anxious sheep to the grinning wolf. His visual sequences, goggle-eyed sheep caricatures and saturated watercolor palette of charcoal gray, turquoise and fuchsia on snowy white (even a Mondrian canvas on Sam's wall) strongly recall Satoshi Kitamura's graphics and humor. Despite some derivative elements and bumpy rhymes, this book generates excitement with the tried-and-true sheep vs. wolf formula. Ages 4-8. "(Sept.)" Copyright 2006 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 2Counting sheep has long been the suggested cure for insomnia, but for Sam thats not the problem. He needs to keep track of his herd of 10, but each time he tries to count them, he nods off before he finishes. The sheep conclude that they must be too boring to keep the shepherd alert and that they must find a way to be more interesting. This becomes imminently important when a wolf in sheeps clothing appears at the door on a stormy night. Just as the man is about to let him in, the real sheep insist that he count one more time. They put on a show, and at last he is able to keep his eyes open long enough to count the chorus line. The wolf is left out in the storm, and the sheep and Sam go back to bed. The rhyming text is somewhat inconsistent. Some lines are exact rhymes; others are very loosely rhymedso loose its hard to recognize the lines as verse. This and the uneven cadence make the story difficult to read smoothly. However, children will giggle over the comical illustrations. The rounded bodies of Sam and his sheep (on two legs) walk up over the quilted hills, creating their own rhythm. The white sheep with their dark faces and striped stocking caps pull readers eyes across the pages. Laughter will ring out when the wolfs loud knock literally scares the hats and socks right off them as they slumber. Pair this tale with Rob Scottons "Russell the Sheep" (HarperCollins, 2005) for a wide-awake storytime."Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH" Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.