Drew Daywalt, author of the bestselling picture book The Day the Crayons Quit, brings his kid-centric sense of humor to a new bedtime story with a twist, raucously brought to life by illustrator Scott Campbell.
Roderick positively loathes going to bed at night. He’s adept at coming up with excuses to delay the inevitable. There are the usual requests for more stories and a glass of water, but Roderick isn’t above pulling out all the stops: Why not ask for a pony so he can hear his parents detail all the many reasons he’s not getting one? But Roderick’s parents have a plan. They give Roderick a special stuffed goodnight buddy (Is he a moose or a bear?) named Sleepy. Roderick doesn’t like the look of Sleepy all that much, and when he tries to stash him away in the closet, Sleepy reveals that he’s alive.
The tables are then turned and the real fun ensues as we learn that Sleepy doesn’t live up to his name—he hates bedtime even more than Roderick does. And so an increasingly exasperated and exhausted Roderick finds himself on the other end of a series of Sleepy’s delaying tactics, humorously brought to life through the characters’ dialogue and Campbell’s watercolors.
While children will appreciate the story’s humor, parents may well wonder about the inspiration for the book. Let’s just say that author Daywalt dedicated it to his children, “To Abigail and Reese, but mostly Reese.” Unlike the mom on the back cover, parents can’t go to the store to buy a magical goodnight buddy, but adding Sleepy to the must-read bedtime pile for the sleep-averse ones in your home may be the next best thing.
