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Bedtime for Sweet Creatures

by Nikki Grimes

A lively bedtime shaped by a child’s imagination

Regular price $16.47 USD
Regular price $27.45 USD Sale price $16.47 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Editorial selection

    Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year

    Named a Best Book of the Year.

  • Critical praise

    Booklist starred review

    Received a starred review; the review calls it a fabulous interpretation of an everyday battle.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A lively bedtime shaped by a child’s imagination

Bedtime becomes an animal-filled game as a young child turns ordinary resistance to sleep into growls, questions, and hiding. His mother meets the make-believe with loving patience, while animals from bears and owls to snakes and squirrels carry the child’s imagination through the illustrations. The book brings together the familiar challenge of settling down for the night and the warmth of a Black mother and child’s relationship, with playfulness at the heart of their exchange.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Families seeking a bedtime picture book about a child reluctant to sleep
  • Young readers who enjoy animals and imaginative play
  • Shoppers looking for children’s books featuring a Black mother and child

Themes

Bedtime routinesImagination and animal playThe bond between mother and childEveryday family life

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year

Kirkus Best Book of the Year

Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

4 STARRED REVIEWS

Nikki Grimes, Coretta Scott King Award winning author, and acclaimed illustrator Elizabeth Zunon's latest children's masterpiece creates an imagination-fueled and animal-filled journey to bedtime.

"Has the feel of an all-time great bedtime picture book" -- The New York Times

It's bedtime. But Mommy's little one is not sleepy.

He growls like a bear, he questions like an owl, he tosses his mane like a lion. He hunts for water like a sly wolf, and hides like a snake.

Mommy needs to wrangle her sweet creature in bed so that the whole family can sleep. From tigers to squirrels to snakes, the little boy dodges around his bedtime, until he is tired enough to finally sleep. His imaginative animal friends weave their way through the illustrations, eventually joining him in curling up for the night.

For those seeking children's books about diversity, this loving depiction of everyday shenanigans is sure to become a bedtime favorite. Bedtime for Sweet Creatures is an African American children's book that celebrates imagination, playful moments, and the love between a Black mother and child.

"The mother's loving understanding is demonstrated by how she works with her child's rich imagination, never slipping into admonishment. As such, children will engage with the pajama-clad tot's antics and be soothed by the book's positive tone. A fabulous interpretation of an everyday battle."--Booklist, STARRED review

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