Are You Awake?

Are You Awake by Sophie Blackall
2011

     As soon as I opened Are You Awake? and saw the image of a boy leaning over his sleeping mom and propping her eyelid open with his index finger, I was completely hooked.  Been there...and if you have young kids, I know you've been there too.  Edward rises in the middle of the night and wakes his mother up with the classic question:

Mom, are you awake?    
  MM-MM. No.
Why aren't you awake?
  Because I'm asleep.
Why are you asleep?
  Because it's still nighttime.
Why is it still nighttime?
  Because the sun hasn't come up yet.

     Edward has hundreds of questions ready to keep the conversation going all night, including "What does your face look like when you're asleep?" Eventually, his mom switches positions and begins asking the questions: "Do you like yellow?" "Why is it your favorite color?" "What are some yellow things?"

And my favorite part:

Dogs are yellow.
  No, they're not.
Yellow dogs are.

     Finally, mom goes on and on talking about things that are yellow, including a synesthesia-like description: "Some names sound yellow to me, like Peter, and some letters and numbers, like E and 3."  As she moves down the list, Edwards eyes slowly close, just as the yellowest thing begins to come through the window.

     Are You Awake? is tender and funny.  Parents will relate to the situation immediately and young kids will find themselves depicted in Edward's questions and movements around the bed.  Sophie Blackall's (Big Red Lollipop) illustrations are gorgeous with a classic look about them that match the topic and tone of the book beautifully.  This one gets added to my favorite books of the year bookshelf.

Tell Me the Day Backwards

Tell Me the Day Backwards by Albert Lamb
Illustraded by David McPhail

     "Let's play that game we used to play that summer" says little Timmy Bear to Mama Bear as he gets ready for bedtime.  The game is to retell the day backwards.  Timmy Bear starts going back through all the details of his adventure filled day.   The day ended with a relaxing picnic but soon we find out that Timmy had a scary incident:  Papa Bear had to rescue Timmy Bear from the river.  As he retells the story, always prompted by Mama Bear asking "what happened before that?", we are able to reconstruct the whole day.
     Tell Me the Day Backwards is an exciting and sweet tale that will have you and the kids wanting to play the game yourselves during bedtime.   The watercolor illustrations are beautiful.   The story provides  a great exercise to use in the classroom as well, not only the idea of telling a story backwards, but following the cause and effect pattern throughout the retelling.

In a Blue Room

In a Blue Room by Jim Averbeck
Illustrated by Tricia Tusa
2008

     "In a blue room, Alice bounces, wide-awake past bedtime."  Her mom comes in and out of Alice's room bringing her different things to help her fall asleep: flowers to give off a gentle scent, orange tea to soothe her, an extra quilt to keep her warm and cozy, a lullaby to sing her to sleep, and yellow bells to chime softly.  But Alice loves blue, and those things aren't blue. That is until her mom turns the light of and whispers "Here it comes." Click. And the moon comes in "bathing everything in its pale blue light. Blue flowers. Blue tea. Blue quilts. Blue bells. Blue moon."
     In a Blue Room is a very poetic and tender bedtime story.  It's one of those books where you really notice the care taken in selecting the text that goes in each page to pace the story.  The illustrations are enchanting and indispensable to set the mood of the story.  I especially love the shift from the color into the blue of the night towards the final pages.  Both my kids where born under a blue moon, so this is one to keep in my bookshelf.

Mama Robot

Mama Robot by Davide Cali
Illustrations by Anna Laura Cantone
Translated from Italian by Marcel Danesi
Voglio una mama-robot
2008

     His mom is always busy. Everyday he comes back from school to find the same note on the dinner table telling him to eat, brush his teeth, do his homework and clean his room. Boring! So he has a plan: he will build himself a Mama Robot. Mama Robot will never be busy and she will always have time for him. She'll protect him from scary dogs and bullies, she will cook only his favorite foods and never make "boiled cabbage, boiled fish, boiled chicken." Mama Robot will do his homework, let him stay up late to watch scary movies, and best of all "she will never yell at me" and she will "never be too busy to spend time with me." But, there is a problem, "how do you hug a robot mom?"
     Mama Robot is a delightful book. It's text flows with ease and the capitalization of specific words makes it easy to read aloud with the intended emphasis. The illustrations are fairly quirky and I loved the change in orientation that makes you have to flip the book in order to see some of the images. Mama Robot is great, but you still need a mom that knows how to cuddle.

My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story

My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story by Jamie Lee Curtis
Illustrated by Laura Cornell
2010

     It's Mother's Day so there is no better time to include in this blog My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story . "My mommy hung the moon. She tied it with string. My mommy's good at everything." From that opening verse we are taken through a long list of all the wonderful things moms can do, their quasi superhero status when seen through the eyes of their young kids. Moms can light up the sun, puff clouds, feather birds, grow food, write all the books, and my favorite, "webbed all the world, she dotted .com. She e'd the email, my own CD MOM."
     The illustrations are quirky and quite colorful and offer pages full of details to look at during multiple reads. My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story is sweet and funny. A book to read year round.