Time to Sleep

by Denise Fleming

A warm, inviting bedtime book from a Caldecott winning illustrator.

"Bear sniffed once.
She sniffed twice.
'I smell winter in the air. . . .'"

A chill is in the air and Bear knows it is time for her winter nap. But first, she must tell Snail. And Snail must tell Skunk. And Skunk must tell Turtle. Each animal who tries to put off going to sleep just a little longer sees, smells, hears, or tastes the signs of the impending season. Finally, Ladybug rushes off to tell Bear--already asleep in her cave--the exciting news.

Denise Fleming presents a warm-hearted story about animals of the forest settling down for their winter nap. But, like children who must go to bed for the night, they each find a way to put it off just a little bit longer. Richly illustrated in fall colors, Denise Fleming's Time to Sleep world is right on target for preschoolers.

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Storytime, Childrens, Science, Nature, Pre K

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 1997

About the author

Denise Fleming has written and illustrated many children’s picture books, including In the Tall, Tall Grass, Shout! Shout It Out!, and Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy. She won a Caldecott Honor for In the Small, Small Pond. Denise creates her colorful illustrations by pouring colored paper pulp through hand-cut stencils. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/denise...
http://www.simonandschuster.com/autho...

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Albeit that in Denise Fleming’s Time to Sleep each encountered and by Fleming narrationally presented animal continuously (read over and over again) telling another animal that winter is on the way and that therefore it is now also time for months long sleeping would probably be engaging and even much fun for very young children, and likely equally a very simple and basic general introduction to the concept of hibernation, to the idea of animals sleeping away the winter months, personally and as an older adult reader, I have indeed and definitely found Time to Sleep textually both much too one dimensional and annoyingly repetitive for my tastes (although yes, I did and do smile a bit at how the circle of cumulativeness is completed in Time to Sleep when Ladybug does not realise that Bear is already snoozing, does not need to be specifically reminded to hibernate and thus also does not appreciate being woken up by Ladybug to be told that which he already well knows).

Combined with the fact that according to my personal aesthetics, I have also not found the accompanying artwork for Time to Sleep all that visually pleasant, that while I do appreciate and acknowledge Denise Fleming’s use of colour and how this truly does illustratively signal the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, especially the depicted animals are generally all considerably too cartoon like for me, I from a personal reading pleasure point of departure cannot really consider more than two stars maximum for Time to Sleep as the combination of Denise Fleming’s text and her accompanying images just has been rather ho-hum and not all that engaging and interesting for critical adult I, nothing terrible or problematic, just not really my cup of tea by any stretch of my imagination.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't a huge fan of this, though there's nothing really "wrong" with it. I just thought it was a little silly that animals needed to be told by other animals that it was winter -- but I guess it's supposed to be cute and fun with the animals interacting and helping their friends. The illustrations were just okay for me though, as was pointed out to me, they are large and bold which might make this a good choice for story time. I don't feel like the book offers any new or really educational information on hibernation than what most children in the target market would already know although I do appreciate that it goes beyond just mammals hibernating and some children may not think of snails and ladybugs being part of winter sleep. If you're looking for books on hibernation it wouldn't hurt to throw this into the pile and see if it resonates with your young reader(s) as I know a few friends who really liked it. I read it to my kids but they have not asked for a re-read.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read from openlibrary for Children's Books group.

Unlike some other members, I really like this myself. I don't know how thrilled I would be to read it aloud a whole bunch of times, but I can certainly imagine that some children would like the wittiness of the circular story and ask for the repeated readings.

I also think it's for the youngest children, not those who already have learned about hibernation and estivation. I find it easy to forgive the silliness of the premise. After all, these are friends looking out for one another, always a good theme.

I love the illustrations the way a child would, without particularly caring how impressive the amount of craft that went into making them. They're bright, and warm, almost tactile. I think it would make a good board book.

I like Fleming's work. Her Small Small Pond is probably the most famous... at least it came to mind first for me.

[SL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Repetitiveness in picture books, especially for preschool, is a good pattern for stories but in this case, I kept getting annoyed by how LONG this story felt. It starts off with Bear realizing that she needed to sleep aka hibernate and how the message spread that it was time for other hibernating animals to sleep. It felt like an endless string of "hey animal x, it's time to sleep!" until the end. The artwork was a little abstract for my taste as well. The only thing I did like was seeing how there were different animals that hibernate. (I learned that snails and ladybugs hibernate, who knew?)

Maybe I'm just grumpy, but I didn't find this story to be particularly compelling. Two lukewarm stars from me.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming is a story about the hibernation of several animals that also can function as a bedtime story.

Bear smells winter and knows it's time to sleep, but must first tell snail. Snail in turn sees it's time, but must tell skunk. Skunk sees its time to sleep, but must first tell Turtle. Turtle must tell Woodchuck who must tell Ladybug. Ladybug has heard geese but must tell bear. She wakes up Bear then goes to sleep in a nearby log. All six animals say goodnight to each other as snow falls. "See you in the Spring!"

The text incorporates the senses as animals smell, hear, see, taste or feel the signs of winter as they encounter frost, leaves changing color and falling, shorter days, and migrating geese. The text is in a large font making it easy to read-aloud.

Fleming used colored cotton rag fiber to create the illustrations which feature earthy and fall colors. Perspective highlights the relative size differences of some animals.

Fleming has again created a interesting animal story, this time incoporating nature and hibernation. This would be a good read-aloud with possibilities for using different voices for different animals. I recommend this for school and public library collections.

For ages 3 to 7, hibernation, winter, autumn, animals, bedtime, read-aloud, and fans of Denise Fleming.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I opened this book to share in library pre-school story time I said "It's TIME TO SLEEP" according to Denise Fleming who made this book. Can you read the title with me?" I put my finger under the first word and we all said "Time", and so forth. According to a recent study that was aired on NPR, this simple way of introducing books to children helps with reading readiness. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/... Of course you and I know the children weren't 'reading', but they felt like they were and that's what matters.

This book is absolutely ideal for sharing. Big bold pictures, bold print, brief 'predictable' text(repetitive narrative elements), satisfactory story flow.

I added a "DIALOGIC READING" element to my sharing of the story. At the end of every other page is the phrase "But first I must tell _____". Rather than reading the animal I gave clues...
"Can you guess? This animal is very small, lives in a shell, and leaves a silvery trail wherever it goes." A SNAIL! (One child said "turtle" but that's okay.)

Go to this link to learn more about DIALOGIC reading and why it is important...
http://www.reachoutandread.org/resour... .

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sweet story about animals preparing to hibernate. It's a nice tale to read at bedtime - the illustrations are colorful with interesting textures and the narrative is fun to read aloud. We enjoyed reading this book together.

This book was featured as one of the selections for the November 2019: Hibernation-themed books discussion at the Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books group here at Goodreads.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fiction story includes both deep sleepers and hibernators. I really liked the circular, round robin telling--bear starts out warning snail that winter is coming, then snail warns another animal, and so on, until the ladybug wakes up the bear to warn him that winter is coming. Denise Fleming's outstanding illustrations were created using colored cotton rag fiber. These are the kind of illustrations that children's librarians love to use in story times, because they are large enough for every child in the audience to see easily.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful story that is fun for both bedtime and winter. The illustration style is interesting, and I'm a sucker for a story in which the bear is female without needing to be a mother!

[Katelynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

x

[Susan Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hibernation Story Time

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Denise Fleming books are wonderful! Bear smells winter in the air, and tells Snail that winter is coming and it is time to sleep. Snail tells another animal, and on and on, until the message gets back to Bear that winter is coming and it is time to sleep. Each animal mentions another sign of winter, and a different action that they need to do to get ready for hibernation. Fleming poured colored cotton pulp through hand-cut stencils to make the images. The colors give off the earthy glow of autumn.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 2 out of 5]

Each animals tells another that winter is on its way.

Ages: 3 - 7

**Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it!

Visit my website!

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read at preschool story time on 12/5/11: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

Read at Preschool Story Time on 12/7/16: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it weird/off-putting/bad for science that the animals tell each other that it's time to hibernate? Like the animals all just know by themselves? But I do like that they each mention signs of winter. Could be a good story to talk about fiction vs. non-fiction portrayals of animals.

[Jess Bergoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: When Bear smells Winter in the air, she knows it's time to sleep. Before heading to her cave, Bear tells snail that it's time to sleep. Just like Bear, Snail decides to tell Skunk that it's time to sleep. The pattern continues as each animal tells another animal it is time to sleep. The news finally gets back to Bear, who is already sleeping.

Review: Another beautiful and cute picture book for children! Denise Fleming's illustrations are so vibrant and eye-catching for young readers. I think it is so funny that all the animals share that it is time to sleep. I also enjoy it when all the animals say good night to one another because it is so sweet.

Pair: I would pair the book "Time to Sleep" with the book, "Animals in Winter," by Henrietta Bancroft. The book, "Animals in Winter," is very informative about what happens to animals during Winter. I think children would enjoy the story with the different animals, and then also learning about them in another book.

Quote: While Bear is sniffing the air, she says, "'I smell winter in the air...'" This quote leaves a sense of excitement. Most children recognize the smell after it has rained. I think children would like the idea of imagining the smells of Winter.

[Kerry Lambert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this to my pre-K kiddos at work as we were wrapping up our unit on Winter and focusing on reviewing hibernation yesterday. It's a sweet little story about animals that hibernate letting each other know that is time for their long winter nap. It's a good way to teach children some of the animals that hibernate (I even learned a few I didn't realize hibernate too!) . The kids really enjoyed it and were able to name nearly all of the animals the book mentioned when we asked them a little while later what animals hibernate. If you're a teacher or a parent, this is a quick and sweet little story about hibernation that kids will enjoy!

[Dina · Rating 4 out of 5]

With winter on its way, the story follows a series of animals reminding each other it is time to sleep until the reporting chain runs out and it reaches the already hibernating bear. I enjoyed the abstract visuals of the animals and their surroundings. The orange and red tones symbolize the elements of fall beautifully. I rated this book a four because readers meet the biggest and smallest animals all participating in the act of nature of preparing for the upcoming winter season, with a visual representation that exemplifies the warm mood and the seasonal setting.

[Anne Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nicely illustrated children's story in which Bear realizes winter is on the way and it's time to hibernate. But first, Bear must tell Snail, Snail must tell Skunk, Skunk must tell Turtle, Turtle must tell Woodchuck, Woodchuck must tell Ladybug, and Ladybug must tell… Bear? But Bear is already asleep, and gets a bit grumpy by being awakened by Ladybug!

Each animal along the way tells what it does to make it through the cold, teaching children that life is still going on in the dead of winter.

[Amy Goldstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect kindergarten read-aloud. I read this in October as the seasons are changing. We talked about how animals get ready for winter/hibernation. This book is simple but offers rich vocabulary, luscious illustrations and a fun circle story as each animal tells the next that it is time to get ready for winter. Students were very surprised to learn how many animals hibernate, as this book offers unique examples. The pace is just right for a young crowd.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about the coming of a change of seasons. The animals all spread the word that it's time for hibernation until the story comes full circle. It's a cute story, the kind that you could share with a younger elementary audience. Nicely done.

[Emily Storytime · Rating 3 out of 5]

12/12/23 - "Hibernation"
Great introduction to different hibernating animals. I think some felt animals (or puppets) would be a great addition to this read-aloud. The parents got a kick out the ending.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

As winter approaches, a series of animals tell one another that it is time to sleep.

This picture book introduces young readers to the concept of hibernation and common animals found in North American temperate deciduous forests.

The illustrations were done with colored rag fiber.

[Amy Kuilema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great large illustrations. I loved the idea of showing lots of different animals that hibernate, not just bears. Kids loved it at storytime.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just met Denise Fleming and her stories and rhythm are fun but after you learn about how she makes her art work SPECTACULAR!!

[susan nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fall storytime

[BiblioBeruthiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a focus on hibernation and which animals hibernate.

[Red · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very pretty book, and a good way to teach children while encouraging them to read.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

love this author

decent story