All My Friends Are Fast Asleep

Children’s musician Weinstone follows Music Class Today! with another song as picture book; guitar chords and a link to a free download are included. The hero, a brown-skinned boy with a bad case of insomnia, leaves his cozy bedroom, ventures outdoors carrying a lantern-bright white pillow (which matches the whites of his very open eyes), and looks for a sleep role model in the animal world. “So on I go to find a place to lay my weary head/ Perhaps I’ll find a friend or two to help me up ahead,” reads the refrain. Le Huche (With Dad, It’s Like That) creates a nighttime landscape that’s both pretty and benign, rendered in crisp lines and rich hues of teal, navy, and purple. The eight featured animals run the gamut (whale, mole, bat, etc.) and are joined by some bemused nocturnal onlookers (an owl, a fox, some rabbits). The story ends just as it should, with the hero re-embracing human sleeping habits, and the text’s steady, lilting repetition may have some readers doing so, too. Ages 2–6. Author’s agent: Erica Rand Silverman, Stimola Literary Studio. Illustrator’s agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Agency. (Sept.)