Exploring Mentor Texts: SLEEPY - SURPRISING WAYS ANIMALS SNOOZE

Picture Book: SLEEPY - SURPRISING WAYS ANIMALS SNOOZE
Author: Jennifer Ward
Illustrator: Robin Page

This adorable non-fiction picture book identifies the sleeping habits of seventeen different animals (including humans). It is filled with beautifully colorful, up-close illustrations of each of the creatures in their sleep settings. This would be a great book for educators who teach animal adaptations or just to use as the foundation of a compare/contrast lesson!

Things I love about this book:

• Each page/spread ends with "If you're a...", a very effective page turn device.
• I love rhyme, kids LOVE rhyme, and many of my ideas come to me in rhyme. I adore the way Jennifer Ward starts the sleep information for each creature with an AABB 4 line rhyme. She cleverly tucks in interesting facts.
• Then, elsewhere on the page, in smaller font, are 2-5 sentences with more related facts.
• The backmatter displays each creature's "Average Snooze Time" with eye-pleasing pie charts allowing the reader to easily see how many hours of a 24 hour period are spent sleeping. So clever!

Some of my favorite lines:

• "Everything works zippy-fast on a hummingbird--its breathing, its heartbeat, its wings."
• "If you're a... Snake, you lie still with open eyes, spectacles worn as a guise. Are you sleeping or awake? Hard to tell, you tricky snake!"
• "If you're a... Sloth, when you're not snacking, you are sleeping. That's the type of day you're keeping! Then--Yawn!--you curl into a ball, snug in a tree so you won't fall."

I absolutely love the combination of short fact-filled rhymes with a few sentences of other facts! What do you think?