Let's Get Sleepy!

June 1, 2020
A marmalade kitten and friends search a crowded cat world for a mouse named Sleepy. When Mom cat asks what happened to Sleepy, this kitten knows she means the crowned mouse known as "Prince of the Night" and "Master of Dreams." The kitten continues, "But where is he now? Where could Sleepy be? / Not here around us. He's run away, free!" With a spread-spanning cry of "LET'S GET SLEEPY!!!" a bevy of kittens bursts out of the house to look, at first just around the neighborhood. Nope. There's a parade going on in town, but the kittens don't find Sleepy. The next "LET'S GET SLEEPY!!!!" hies the friends to "Sunny Sands Beach! Is this where he'll be? / We'll search and we'll seek and ask friends that we meet." The kittens' search takes them to the mountains, a swamp, a cave, and even the moon...but they never find Sleepy. Readers will understand why, as each location presents a bustling scene in which Sleepy figures as a tiny Where's Waldo-esque target amid teeming masses of bright-eyed, round-headed anthropomorphic kitties (and the occasional dog, elephant, or pterodactyl). Each landscape is rendered in a muted palette dominated by ochre and gold, upping the difficulty. All the figures in each scene appear to have their own backstories, allowing young readers searching for Sleepy to make up any number of additional tales. Only confirmed ailurophobes will fail to enjoy sharing these kitties' day. (Picture book. 2-7)

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