SHEEP DON’T COUNT SHEEP
by Margaret Wise Brown & illustrated by Benrei Huang
Puffy as clouds and looking distinctly like cuddly toys, the sheep in this effective snooze-inducer loll in a rolling meadow strewn with exotic flowers and fairylike insects, but with skies and backgrounds that change with every turn of the page. The tale, enjoying its first stand-alone publication, features a little sheep who can’t get to sleep until its mother suggests counting butterflies. It’s sandwiched between verses (newly set to music) in which sound supercedes sense: “Sleep little lamb, and dream your dream / of things that are as things would seem.” The result? A sugary bedtime read that comes off as more of a patchy assemblage of parts than an integrated whole. No writer is superior to Margaret Wise Brown for putting children to sleep, but this uninspired outing won’t win her—or Huang, illustrator of Teresa Bateman’s Hunting the Daddyosaurus (2002) and dozens of other titles—any new fans. (Picture book. 4-6)