Sheep Count Flowers

by Micaela Chirif (Author) Amanda Mijangos (Illustrator)

Sheep Count Flowers
Reading Level: K − 1st Grade

If people count sheep to fall asleep, then.what do sheep count? Flowers, says this beautifully fanciful dream of a book. Sunflowers, roses, geraniums, jasmine. And there's lots of OTHER things you probably don't know about sheep.Sheep have neither pajamas nor pillows nor slippers. They tell bedtime stories about rhinoceroses and airplanes. They ONLY fly when they're sleeping, like butterflies circling the sun. In fact, there are sheep that sparkle in the dark like stars and fireflies. Or are there?

Look closer at the light-as-a-laugh paintings by Amanda Mijangos, and you just might start wondering if all those adventurers are children in sheep's clothing!

Select format:
Hardcover
$17.99

Find books about:

Kirkus

Starred Review

Shared at bedtime, this richly imaginative story may launch children into vivid dreamscapes of their own. 

ALA/Booklist

The whimsical approach and appropriately dreamlike qualities make for a lovely bedtime accompaniment.

Publishers Weekly

Argentinian writer Chirif brings a poet's perception to this consideration of sheep--specifically, their bedtimes. They can't count themselves, it seems, so "sheep count flowers to fall asleep:/ one sunflower,/ two roses,/ three geraniums,/ four jasmines." Mijangos (The Sea-Ringed World) works in ghostly, stencil-like images, by turns sprightly and haunting, overlaid with stroked swaths of paint and dotted with small, closely worked ink motifs--ants, stars, fish. Sheep and children share the spreads. "When sheep have nightmares, they get away from the wolf at the very last moment," Chirif writes. Mijangos draws two dark-haired, light-skinned children menaced by a wolf with a long snout. In the next spreads, they escape by running across the wolf's great body, and one rides it into the sky like a horse. The fragmentary thoughts are like dreams themselves, and their sparkling boldness will draw those who long to wander the wilds of consciousness. Ages 4-7. (Oct.)

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes


Micaela Chirif
Micaela Chirif is an award-winning Peruvian author of children's books and poetry. She has a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, as well as a Master's Degree in Books and Children's Literature from The Autonomous University of Barcelona. Among other awards, her picture books have won the A la Orilla del Viento picture book competition from the Spanish-language publishing house Fondo de Cultura Económica and three of her picture books were White Ravens selections. Micaela's books have been translated into Korean, Japanese, English, Portuguese, and French.

Amanda Mijangos was born in Mexico City, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, and studied illustration in Mexico and Buenos Aires. She has illustrated literature and poetry in books and magazines for people of all ages and gives drawing and illustration workshops for all audiences. Her work has been recognized with awards from countries near and far.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781646141197
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Levine Querido
Publication date
October 19, 2021
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV002090 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | Farm Animals
JUV051000 - Juvenile Fiction | Imagination & Play
JUV010000 - Juvenile Fiction | Bedtime & Dreams
JUV009030 - Juvenile Fiction | Concepts | Counting & Numbers
JUV029040 - Juvenile Fiction | Science & Nature | Flowers & Plants
Library of Congress categories
Bedtime
Picture books
Sheep

Subscribe to our delicious e-newsletter!