The story begins in the County of Keck with a single, small yawn from a creature named Van Vleck. This yawn acts as a biological trigger, spreading across imaginary landscapes to reach eccentric creatures like the Biffer-Baum birds and the sleep-walking Hinkle-Horn Honkers. The narrative tracks the expansion of tiredness through the airwaves and across the globe, detailing the bizarre pre-sleep rituals of monsters and humans alike. As the "audio-tally" machine counts the billions of beings currently drifting off, the rhythmic verse describes various ways characters settle in, from collapsing in heaps to brushing teeth with specialized equipment.
This book serves parents and caregivers looking for a functional tool to settle children at bedtime. Readers use the predictable, repetitive cadence of the rhymes to physically slow down their breath and induce drowsiness. Unlike faster-paced comedies, this narrative focuses on the physical sensation of fatigue and the universality of slumber. Children walk away with a sense of security, envisioning a world where every creature is synchronized in quiet rest, while the final pages provide a definitive endpoint to the day through the closing of its characters' eyes.
Practical, outward-looking, clear-cut and escapist; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Escapist Adventurer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1962
- Language
- EN
