The Baby Who Stayed Awake Forever

January 1, 2025
This infant is too busy for sleep! A baby lies in a crib, seemingly asleep. Readers turn the page to discover that the little one is actually wide awake and ready to chat, climb, dance, jump, yell--everything but sleep. Mama, Papa, and Sister are not amused and try various remedies to get the overactive tot to slumber. Mama and Sister give Baby a binky (she hurls it back), Papa cuddles Baby (an alert Baby starts exploring the inside of Papa's nose), and the whole family gathers for a comforting hug after Baby tumbles out of her crib. But she has no intention of sleeping. When at last it seems as though Baby has tired herself out, it turns out to be another ruse, to the dismay of her exhausted family; as the sun starts to rise, Baby is still going strong. Salsbury's energetic, ebullient prose makes liberal use of exclamation points and enormous font size for effect, paired with a comic book-style layout (which alternates between vignettes, panels, and full-page spreads) to engage wiggly readers who will see themselves reflected in Baby's nonstop antics. Parents might bemoan the lack of a perfect solution, though the reality will be a familiar one. This tale's a logical choice for active toddler storytimes and to share before bedtimes that get endlessly delayed. Mama is tan-skinned; other family members are lighter-skinned. Punchy, silly, and likely to be a favorite.(Picture book. 3-5)

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December 16, 2024
The gauntlet is thrown from the start of this chilling,
not-so-hyperbolic picture book. Text that channels a round-headed, wide-eyed baby’s bedtime intransigence begins, “Sleeping is for koalas and teenagers. This baby intended to stay awake forever.” With various cries piercing the night air, Baby rebuffs all things soporific from a desperate, bleary Mama, Papa, and sister: “Not even seventeen binkies were enough to make this baby go to sleep.” The hour-by-hour telling is not so much a battle of wills as it is an appeal to comity, especially after a downstairs neighbor pipes up. Salsbury skillfully wields a wealth of composition styles to convey the excruciating passage of time (“At 2:15, Baby yelled a bit.
At 2:30, she laughed at her
own yelling”), until it seems
that Baby has finally passed out, dreaming dreams of “glittering stars.” Nope, scratch that: “Not this baby!” Caretakers and new sibs will find plenty of comic comfort and validation in these pages. Characters are portrayed with light brown skin. Ages 3–7.