Title: Everyone is Asleep But Me
Authors: Diana Yacobi and Lily Safrani
Illustrator: Philip L. Wohlrab
Publisher: Author’s Tranquility Press
ISBN: 978-1-958554-68-5
Pages: 25
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Nighttime is a peaceful and tranquil period when one’s body and mind needs to sleep, and it is important for children to sleep through the night so they can awake refreshed to play, learn, and grow. This is the theme of Everyone is Asleep But Me by authors Diana Yacobi and Lily Safrani.
With a minimalist amount of text, the story tells of a young bear awakening during the night to see his toy train and his ball sleeping, as he gently walks down the hall to his parent’s room to see Sleepy Bear fast asleep, tucked into the cozy bed, with a quilted blanket on top, and the gentle light casting moon-shadows around the room. After checking to see all is good, and not having any room to crawl up into his parent’s bed, the young bear then climbs once again into his own bed and slips under the covers, and with a final glance at his toy and ball still sleeping, he gently falls back asleep.
As the moonlight becomes sunlight, the morning brings bright smiles to the toy train and happy ball, and the outdoors is awaiting to grace the young bear’s activities, with playing on the backyard slides and climbing bars. There is a comforting image when being viewed by his bear-parents still in their pajamas as they look out as he frolics in the daylight.
The storyline is ideally enhanced by the excellent and artistic abundance of illustrations which convey the emotions and details of this fanciful bear-family and the elements of the story. The achievement of having the young bear sleep through the whole night in his own bed is the climax of the story, encouraging youngsters reading, or being read this book to, focus on spending the entire night peacefully sleeping without disturbing parents.
The amazing artwork, along with the perfectly chosen text creates a world of imagary and instances to achieve high merits for this masterfully creative and detailed story. The book ends with a checklist in which the readers can mark-off their consistency of sleeping in their own bed throughout the entire night.
Everyone is Asleep But Me is the quintessential bedtime story which should adorn the nightstand of all young children. Don’t sleep on this one – be sure to get a copy for yourselves!
