Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006
So Sleepy Story by Uri Shulevitz
If hypnotic repetition can put a tot to sleep, then this is a surefire bedtime story. The word sleepy occurs 31 times in Shulevitz's lulling text. A sleepy boy lies in bed in his room, and everything else in it — cat, clock, dishes, pictures on the wall, all charmingly drawn — are as sleepy as he is. In a dream-like interlude, music and dancing awaken the room in the wee hours. But the music fades; silence falls again. And when every sleepy thing is so sleepy sleepy, the spell of sleepiness becomes irresistible.