Spanish / Spain
No puedo dormir
(I can’t sleep)
Iglesias, Gracia
(text)
Abadía, Ximo
(illus.)
[Barcelona]: Flamboyant, 2018. – [28] p.
ISBN 978-84-946815-9-2
Bedtime | Falling asleep | Sheep | Counting | Poetry | Picture book
Reading age: 3+
White Ravens issue: 2018
A classic in the life of every child. It’s time to go to bed, but: “I can’t sleep!” Everyone knows what it’s like. Tossing and turning with increased frustration. Counting sheep couldn’t possibly help… or could it? May as well try it. The first sheep gobbles up all the flowers in the carpet; the second sheep falls soot-covered from the chimney; the third floats like a cloud in the sky through the window and plops directly onto the bed. Things continue in this lively vein, until the tenth sheep, when it’s shut-eye. “No puedo dormir” is a bedtime book and a counting book, where author and illustrator playfully and creatively approach the matter at hand. Every double-page spread promises new wit. Gracia Iglesias’s short texts are rhymed miniature poems, which are wonderful to read aloud. Ximo Abadía has “translated” the words into original pictures, which capture the dreamy transition from wakefulness to sleep.