Like many people, I’m a big fan of Mo Willems. His pigeon books are pure anarchic fun.
Therefore, I was intrigued when I saw a Mo Willems book in my library’s beginning reader section, and so I picked up his 2010 Time to Sleep Sheep the Sheep!
It has many of the qualities of a Mo Willems book: well-designed pages full of color, simple but engaging images, and a strong, tight focus for the story. In a Mo Willems book, the character’s desires and actions ARE the world. In this case, they deal with a single moment or demand: it is time to go to sleep, and the cat is going from animal to animal making sure they are ready. The sheep, pig, giraffe, crab, horse, and shark are all ready, but then there’s a twist: the owl is the last animal. The cat recognizes the owl is nocturnal, and just sort of backs away. This leaves a restless and vaguely self-conscious owl sitting awake at the side, while the other animals get in their sleeping bags and go sleep. The end!
Willems has been both a cartoonist and an animator, and it shows: the characters communicate emotion with eyes, posture, and the set of their mouths. Colors are vivid, and there are some nice small details for kids to track, like the crab’s glasses or the horse using the toilet.
All of that being said, this is far less engaging than one of the standard Willems books, like Don’t Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus!
