A sleepy house is roused when music drifts in through an open window. Chairs begin to rock, dishes dance, and a boy awakens to the revelry. As the music fades, everything is sleepy once again. With soothing text and whimsical illustrations, Caldecott Medalist Shulevitz has created the ultimate bedtime story. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Starred Review. Just as the first snowfall introduced magic in the quiet town of Shulevitz's Snow, here music puts a sleeping household under its spell. The book opens when night falls upon a little house, and sleep overtakes its inhabitants. The artist's choice to anthropomorphize every creature and household item from the faces on the dishes, to the legs on the table, all portrayed with tightly closed eyes indicates that nothing is immune to slumber. Text steeped in repetition and alliteration creates a soporific effect ("sleepy cuckoo-clock/ by sleepy dishes/ on sleepy shelves/ and a sleepy cat/ on a sleepy chair"). Muted watercolors in twilight tones reinforce the sense of stillness. With the sudden introduction of music, the house begins to awaken, and color slowly washes across the pages, creating a daybreak effect. The text disappears, and the previously framed illustrations burst into full-bleed paintings. Words seem to be no longer necessary, as the music creates an energy all on its own. But as the action winds down and each object (plus a sleepy boy) returns to sleep, readers will not doubt that this process will inevitably begin again. Much like a child's nighttime routine, this story is an ode to the predictable rhythms yet also the surprising moments that comprise an ordinary day. Ages 3-6. (Aug.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Starred Review. PreS-Gr 1 A âÇ£sleepy sleepy boyâÇ  is fast asleep in his âÇ£sleepy sleepy bedâÇ  along with everything else in his âÇ£sleepy sleepy houseâÇ  until music comes drifting in, in ever louder tones. Then the child and his surroundings gradually come alive, dance, and shake to the beat, and drift back to sleep as the notes and instruments depart. The brief repetitive text takes a backseat to the whimsical watercolor-and-ink cartoon illustrations. Indeed, a couple of spreads have no words at all. Dark background washes engulf the personified objects as they settle into slumber. With the arrival of notes that become instrument-playing characters, the washes begin to lighten with the slowly awakening household, until the cavorting furnishings are suffused with brilliant oranges and yellows. This transformation is only temporary, however, for with the exodus of the music makers, dusty blues, greens, and grays wrap everyone in sleep once again. Before youngsters themselves nod off, there is much for them to see and enjoy here dancing dishes that eventually slump over, picture-framed characters with outrageous beards and mustaches, vibrating tables and chairs, a bookcase containing Shulevitz titles, trees and house leaning over in sleep, and more. This is a bedtime bonanza. Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

PreS. Shulevitz's latest winning picture book evokes the lulling rhythms of Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon (1947) but adds a thrilling animation to a quiet bedtime scene. In a quiet room, "in a sleepy sleepy house [where] everything is sleepy sleepy," a boy slumbers deeply until music drifts through a window, rousing him (and all the surrounding objects) into joyful midnight revelry. Then the music floats away, and the room settles back into peaceful dreamtime. As in Dawn (1974) and Snow (1998), Shulevitz celebrates how the simplest things can be miraculously transformed. Unlike the objects in Goodnight Moon, everything in this room is alive with a discernable, expressive face: the dishes, the tables and chairs, the bookcase (filled with Shulevitz's books). The objects all snooze languidly, and then explode into action as the equally animated musical notes, with wild smiles on their round heads, curl and dance through the window. The ink-and-watercolor scenes create an energetic tension between the deep, blue-gray sleepy-time scenes and the rainbow-streaked views of vibrant musical activity. The spare, hypnotically repetitive text and progressively deepening colors will pull preschoolers into the shadowy edges of sleep along with the story's bewildered boy, and they'll feel satisfied to see their suspicions confirmed: the living and the inanimate worlds aren't so separate after all. GillianEngberg. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.