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Twenty Yawns

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Twenty Yawns

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Hardcover
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Overview

A Huffington Post Best Children’s Book of the Year

From Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley and Caldecott Honor artist Lauren Castillo.

As her mom reads a bedtime story, Lucy drifts off. But later, she awakens in a dark, still room, and everything looks mysterious. How will she ever get back to sleep?

Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley’s first picture book, illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Lauren Castillo, evokes the splashy fun of the beach and the quietude of a moonlit night, with twenty yawns sprinkled in for children to discover and count.

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About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477826355
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	04/01/2016
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD510L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, as well as five works of nonfiction and a series of books for young adults. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2006 she received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. This is her first picture book. She lives in Northern California.

Hometown:

Northern California

Date of Birth:

September 26, 1949

Place of Birth:

Los Angeles, California

Education:

B.A. in English, Vassar College, 1971; M.A., Iowa University, 1975; M.F.A, 1976; Ph.D., 1978

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

01/11/2016
In her first outing as picture book author, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Smiley (A Thousand Acres) explores the spookiness of being awake when everyone else has fallen asleep. After a long day at the beach, Lucy and her parents are out of steam. Mom dozes off during Lucy’s bedtime read-aloud, and Lucy finds her father slumbering in his armchair when she tiptoes into the living room to retrieve her bear, Molasses. Lucy’s sense of solitude is sharpened as she sees her drawings hanging on her bedroom wall: “Everyone in the pictures seemed to be watching her—Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Elizabeth, Mom, and Dad.” But this haunted moment passes, and by the time Lucy has put her beloved stuffed animals to bed, she’s calm and ready for sleep. Castillo’s (Yard Sale) spreads call up just the right sense of moonlit otherworldliness. Her signature soft black outlines unite the beach prelude with the main nighttime story, and she quietly embraces diversity by making Lucy’s family biracial. As a bonus, readers can search for the title’s 20 yawns. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Paul Rodeen, Rodeen Literary Management. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Perfect bedtime story for the end of a busy day.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A sweet soporific and an attractive option for most collections wanting to refresh bedtime selections.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
“Caldecott Honor Book illustrator Castillo uses bold outlined figures and soft backgrounds exceptionally well…Children will enjoy turning pages to count all twenty yawns.” —Booklist
“This is a perfect bedtime book.” —Huffington Post, “Best Picture Books of 2016”

From the Publisher

★ 03/01/2016
PreS-Gr 1—Lucy and her parents spend a delightful but exhausting day at the beach. Lucy digs a hole, rolls down a dune, chases a gull, and builds a sand castle. At bedtime, Mom falls asleep even before she finishes reading Lucy a story. Bright moonlight wakens the child, who searches for her toy bear and eventually carries all her stuffed animals to bed. The animals, the people in Lucy's drawings, and the moon yawn before settling down to sleep. Castillo's illustrations capture the warmth and vitality of sun-drenched beach activities as well as the shadowy calm of moonlit rooms. They add immeasurably to the story's tone and spot-on child-focused sensibilities. Hand-lettered onomatopoeia sounds like "swoosh" and "flap" add flair to the well-designed pages. VERDICT A sweet soporific and an attractive option for most collections wanting to refresh bedtime selections.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato

School Library Journal

★ 2016-01-20
After a day at the beach, Mom, Dad, and Lucy are tired. But when the moon shines through her window, and everything looks mysterious, Lucy is suddenly wide awake. How will she go to sleep? This warm, sweetly ordinary story is Pulitzer Prize-winner Smiley's picture-book debut. The simple text describes a sunny day at the beach, with Lucy digging a hole, running into the water, walking from one end of the beach to the other, rolling down warm dunes, and eventually heading home, with Mom declaring, "Early bedtime!" As Mom reads a bedtime story, she falls asleep, and Lucy begins to nod off. But when moonlight bathes her bed, a wide-awake Lucy slips out of bed and pads out of her room in search of Molasses, her bear. Dad is snoring in his chair, and the house is very quiet. After finding Molasses—and all her menagerie of animal toys—Lucy settles them in her bed, snuggles in next to them, sighs a happy sigh, and falls asleep. Caldecott Honoree Castillo beautifully captures the warmth of the story in textured watercolors and bold, saturated colors. Of special note is the refreshingly straightforward portrayal of the family as biracial (Mom has dark skin and springy hair, while Dad is white). And the titular "twenty yawns?" Readers can find and count them sprinkled throughout the text. Perfect bedtime story for the end of a busy day. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews

Twenty Yawns

Twenty Yawns

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