My Parents Think I'm Sleeping

Horn Book

Will find an audience with Prelutsky fans.

Children's Literature - Sharon Salluzzo

Going to sleep at night is an important part of a child's day. Some nights can seem scary, some noisy, and some quiet. Some nights it is difficult to settle down. Prelutsky presents these scenarios and many others in these fourteen poems. Readers will identify with the child reading by flashlight under the covers and making shadow pictures on the wall. Illustrations work in harmony with the poems and extend them as well. In "Chocolate Cake," the little boy sneaks past his parents room where he hears snoring and goes into the kitchen, hopeful for a piece of cake. While it is not mentioned in the poem, Abolafia has drawn his father already in the kitchen munching on the cake. Discussions of imaginary monsters, daytime sheep and nighttime wolves in the clouds, and what happens to color at night are all topics that are child-centric. Humor, suspense, and surprise give color and variety to the poems. This is part of the "I Can Read!" series and is a level 3 "reading alone" title for "confident readers." Just as fresh as when this book was originally published in 1985, it is a good poetry title for parents and children to share together.

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4 Prelutsky turns his rollicking poetry talents to the problems and thoughts of bedtime. Unlike his Nightmares (Greenwillow, 1976), the night visions in these 14 poems are lighthearted rather than scary. ``A Spooky Sort of Shadow'' is really just a brush and comb; the monster in ``When I'm Very Nearly Sleeping'' can be frightened away by a bedside light . Abolafia's drawings, accompanying each poem, reinforce the book's domestic, comfortable tone. A literary dessert for collections that, like the narrator of the poem ``Chocolate Cake,'' have ``got an empty space.'' Kathleen D. Whalin, New Canaan Lib., Conn.

Kirkus Reviews

First published as a Greenwillow stand-alone in 1985, this welcome I Can Read entry features Abolafia's updated, full-color illustrations for Prelutsky's 14 poetic explorations of the not-too-scary night. Prelutsky engages the reader conspiratorially by leading with the title poem, for which the artist supplies the resourceful brown-haired narrator with flash-lit books and model rocket parts, substituting an electronic game gadget for the earlier transistor radio. The pictures provide some amusing extensions. The lad dreamily plans his nighttime snack attack in "Chocolate Cake:" "I will slip into the kitchen/ without any noise or light, / and if I'm really careful, / I will have that cake tonight." In the facing picture, he catches his like-minded dad with cake in hand, cheeks bulging. The poems focus on gentle, philosophical musings about day, night, sun and sky, and the boy's mastery of his own nighttime fears is a developmentally appropriate touch. A nicely repackaged addition to a genre much needed within the easy-reader realm: poetry. (Easy reader. 5-8)