Bedtime Hullabaloo

PreS-K Conway returns to the African savanna where a leopard, giraffe, baboon, and other animals cannot get to sleep because they are disturbed by snorts and grunts. On their way to find out what is causing the terrible racket, they gather several other tired beasts. They finally discover the source of all the commotion-a tiny shrew in a pink tutu with a very loud snore. Together, the animals growl and screech until they wake the offender and are able to fall asleep. The last page shows that the shrew has plans to make sure the others do not sleep for long. This slight story starts out sounding like it is going to be an adventure in alliteration, but the wordplay stops abruptly on the next page and then appears sporadically in the rest of the book. Fuge's illustrations of goofy, wide-eyed animals reflect the silliness of the text, but some of his drawings border on the grotesque (the giraffe sitting on his rump looks too weird to be funny). And the punch line of the entire tale is given away on the back cover. Skip this one and go for another reading of Bob Shea's "Dinosaur vs. Bedtime"(Hyperion, 2008).-"Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT" Copyright 2010 Media Source Inc.