EVERYONE IS YAWNING

One animal after another yawns with the lift of a flap…even the small child at the end.

A “yawner” in the best sense, this parade of sleepyheads isn’t just a series of variations on the same motion—it offers a mix of repetition and low-key interactive surprises. Each double-page spread features a big, simple, familiar creature whose rounded muzzle is a flap. In most cases, lifting the flap reveals a wide-open mouth—but partway through is an arctic fox who starts out gaping so that the flap action goes down rather than up. Similarly, along with patterned observations that each animal is “yawning,” occasional anxiety-reducing comments like “What a funny tongue!” or “Look at those funny teeth!” join interactive suggestions that young viewers grunt along with the piggy and help the hippo yawn three times. Finally, following an artful comment that the little turtle is ready for bed, a bald, light-brown–skinned toddler (“Is the little child going to bed too?”) yawns and goes “off…to…sleep.” On a final gatefold the entire cast nestles together in snoozeville.

Irresistibly somniferous.