This book reads just like a lullaby for a young child with delightful lyrics repeated three times throughout the text. Here are a couple of verses:
Relax your whole body, slow your breathing right down,
Imagine you're sinking into the soft ground ...
As you fall into calmness so comfy and deep,
Your mind will rest and you'll drift off to sleep."
Arlo cannot fall asleep. He is so tired but the grass feels prickly, the earth is hard, the trees are noisy and the desert is way too quiet. His wife, the lioness, and his cubs are all too restless. Thank goodness for the wise owl who sings the all important lullaby. Arlo stretches and relaxes and lets his mind wander to all the places he would like to visit and before he knows it he has fallen into a delicious long sleep. He races over to thank his new friend the owl but it is daytime and the owl should be asleep so Arlo repays the favour and sings the song himself. Owl then falls in to a deep sleep. When he wakes up, Arlo and Owl share their song with the lioness and cubs.
Recently a friend of mine was talking about the glorious art found in children's books by Edward Ardizzone. I passionately want children to experience the best art in the picture books that we share with them. I would add the work of other illustrators who have very fine hand drawn illustrations to this list such as Brian Wildsmith, Ron Brooks, Charlotte Voake, Patrick Benson, Quentin Blake, John Burningham, Helen Oxenbury and Christian Birmingham. I could of course, list heaps of others but my point here is you need to also know Catherine Rayner - her work is equal to the work of these other famous names. Take a look at Catherine's web pages.
Image Source; My Book Corner
Here are some other examples of art found in picture books by Catherine Rayner:
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