Beep Beep Beep Time for Sleep!

If you are a fan of Aliens Love Underpants, search out this new title from Freedman. The cover will attract any child interested in heavy mechanical vehicles. The bold colours zing, mostly in the primary range, capturing the eye and inviting further exploration of the busy illustrations. Beep Beep Beep Time for Sleep! seems an odd title, but the text and illustrations work brilliantly together to wind down towards sleepy time snuggles. What a busy day; Vrooom! Swish! Lorries thunder past, vans and cars drive fast. Backhoe loaders jolt and judder, diggers claw great holes in the earth. ‘Beep! Beep! Beep!’ –it’s a reversing warning, take care! The rhyming text drives us on to a surprise- a double spread opens out to make a quadruple spread, just right to prop as a backdrop for a child’s own toys and imaginative play. The text cleverly slows. “It’s getting late and digging roads will have to wait. Time to wind down, time for stopping. Hear the concrete mixer’s engine popping!” All the machines return to base, where they are given a wash down. Then, as sparkling stars begin to peep,  one by one the vehicles fall asleep.  Maybe it is the second time of reading through at bedtime, but surely by now, tired eyes are ready for sleep! This is a book to be much enjoyed by an adult with a child, but the child will certainly want to read it alone later.