Goodnight Sheep by Sally Barton & Cherie Dignam

When Lilly May finds it hard to go to sleep, her mother suggests the age-old solution of counting sheep. Which would be all very well if they were the sort that leapt one by one over the traditional fence, moon and stars looking down from the night sky.

But Lilly May's sheep are not the 'calmy kind' - "to gently glide is not their way. No Lilly's sheep just want to play."

And so begins an hilarious tale of all the things that sheep can get up to in one little girl's bedroom.

Behind the door is Number One having such a lot of fun
He's busy painting Number Two with stripes of pink and spots of blue...

In fact, there are ten in all, each causing havoc and each portrayed in the most appealing way that is not only make the young reader LOL but also engage in their antics as they use their counting and rhyming skills to predict the text. They might even want to suggest other things the sheep could get up to if it was their bedroom they were in!

I find that if I pick up a book and can immediately picture and hear myself reading it to little ones, then I know it is a winner, and this is one of those. It's bright, it's colourful, it's original, it's funny and it's fun - the preschoolers I read to on Fridays will love it!

Themes: Bedtime, Sheep, counting.

Barbara Braxton