Before I Go to Sleep (1999)

Author:

Thomas Hood

Illustrator:

Mary Jane Begin

Publisher:

Little Brown and Company

Ages 3–8

On a summer evening, when it’s just too hot to sleep, a child amuses himself by imagining all the delightfully funny animals he would like to be. There’s a tap-dancing giraffe, a musical chimpanzee, a mountain goat in silly socks… the fun goes on and on until the boy – and young listeners – are finally ready for sleep. But before they drift off, children will enjoy looking for a special character who appears in each of the illustrations. Mary Jane Begin’s lustrous, brilliantly detailed illustrations illuminate the imaginative night-dreams in Thomas Hood’s classic nineteenth-century poem. Warm and playful, this reissue of a modern classic is just the book for bedtime snuggling.