Description
All creatures great and small, on land, in the air, or in water, need to sleep. But they can’t be tucked into warm beds as people are. The many different ways animals sleep are both fascinating and astounding.
Camels may look like they are lying down, but they actually kneel with only their elbows and knees touching the hot sand, so night breezes can cool their stomachs and humps. Giraffes sleep standing with their heads resting on high branches. They only sleep a couple hours broken up into five-minute naps. Bumblebees often sleep inside of flowers. Seals sleep underwater with their noses closed, waking and surfacing often to breathe. Flamingoes sleep standing on one foot.
Author Jiří Dvořák has written a book that young readers will find fascinating. Dvořák tells the sleep stories of sixteen different animals from the exotic, such as green tree pythons and peacocks, to the common, including cats and dogs. The beautiful illustrations by Marie Štumpfová, in soft colors, have the look of block prints with enough background detail to add interest, but not enough to distract from the main attractions. Young readers will love this book, and it will encourage them to do more research.