All the Animals Were Sleeping

PreS-Gr 2–A little mongoose travels from dusk to dark as it visits its fellow animals across the Serengeti. The mongoose scampers, pads, scrambles, and scurries while witnessing that all the animals are sleeping! Welsh’s writing connects the animals to their landscape while uplifting the interconnectedness of all life with natural surroundings, but the writing gets beautifully specific: “Velvet monkeys hugged the boughs. Their toes and tails hung like fruit from the branches,” and “butterflies rested in their inky darkness, their bright wings and spotted bodies decorating the leaves like jewels.” The sensory rich descriptions paired with repetition encourage listeners to participate in the storytelling; this is an excellent selection for a read-aloud. Løvlie’s full-bleed spreads create space to take in the landscape, the changing colors of the sky, and the animals rendered with realistic detail. Back matter includes additional illustrations and facts about the animals and their unique sleeping habits.