Day 1. It's Time to Sleep, It's Time to Dream

Book 1

Welcome to the 2014 Shelf Challenge! I'll spend the next 30 days posting stand-out titles from our collection, specifically from our Everybody A books. Others from all across the world are joining together for this celebration of literature and libraries during School Library Month. You can read more about the Shelf Challenge HERE or see a map of our 2014 participants HERE. In addition, many of us will be sharing our shelf treasures (and gasps) via Pinterest.

My first read of the challenge comes from widely-published author David A. Adler, but it's Kay Chorao's illustrations that caught my attention in this bedtime lullaby.

I love the way her color illustrations mirror the shadow images of the parents tucking the child to bed. Chorao does this over several pages and the effect is that of a child finding peace and rest through the year, each image capturing a passing season. It made the book quite memorable, which is always a nice quality to have from the first book of a reading challenge.

- Matthew

PS: Moments after sharing this post on Twitter, author pal Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen tweeted this:

@MatthewWinner Ummm, those parents look like they're making a baby
— Sudipta B-Q (@SudiptaBQ) April 2, 2014

And now my brain won't let me un-see that image.  Oh, the joys of the Shelf Challenge!