Bedtime for Sweet Creatures

Nikki Grimes, Coretta Scott King Award winning author, and acclaimed illustrator Elizabeth Zunon’s latest children’s masterpiece creates an imagination-fueled and animal-filled journey to bedtime.

It's bedtime. But Mommy's little one is not sleepy.

He growls like a bear, he questions like an owl, he tosses his mane like a lion. He hunts for water like a sly wolf, and hides like a snake.

Mommy needs to wrangle her sweet creature in bed so that the whole family can sleep. From tigers to squirrels to snakes, the little boy dodges around his bedtime, until he is tired enough to finally sleep. His imaginative animal friends weave their way through the illustrations, eventually joining him in curling up for the night.

January 2020

Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Ages 4-8

ISBN 978-1-4926-3832-2

Written by Nikki Grimes

"A patient mother with a healthy sense of whimsy helps prepare her headstrong toddler for bed... Zunon's art takes this book to the next level: Her portrayals of the animals mentioned in the text are colorful and full of intriguing patterns and shapes. An adventurous treat of a bedtime story." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"... Zunon’s expressive, heavily textured collage is interspersed with abstract animals (evocative of Senufo textile art), clearly delineating imagined from real..." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"In this exceptionally well-done title, readers follow a young child on a before-bed adventure. The book opens with a toddler shouting “No! No! No!”... The gorgeous illustrations are from the child’s perspective... The illustrations and execution of this title give it a fresh approach to a subject that resonates with families raising small children. - School Library Journal (starred review)

"Grimes and Zunon have created an adorable and imaginative bedtime story to add to collections for young children … Zunon uses various styles and materials in collaged spreads that boast bold colors, a menagerie of animals, and traditional African patterns to convey the story’s childlike spirit of adventure... A fabulous interpretation of an everyday battle." - Tiffany Flowers, Booklist (starred review)

"... Zunon mixed realistic portrayals of the human characters with more stylized depictions of the animals, to highlight the role the child’s imagination is playing... A clever bedtime tale for stubborn, active twenty-first-century kids. – The Horn Book