The Sleepy Book

by Margaret Wise Brown

In this collection of stories, songs, and poems, Margaret Wise Brown whispers tales of dreaming bunnies, drowsy bees, and all the pretty little horses . . . beautifully illustrated by Garth Williams in his whimsical yet realistic style. Available for the first time in decades, and perfect for gift-giving.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Animals, Poetry, Classics

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well.

Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.

She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.

She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.

Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.

Reviews

[Phoenix2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of short stories about sleeping, plus some kids poems. Okay, maybe the stories aren't that good, but the drawings are beautiful. Plus, there's a song included in it, which my mom used to sing to me, so I guess that a plus.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another re-read from my childhood. Interestingly enough, though, I did find that there were two copies from the same year (1975) with each being quite different in just a few ways.

With the Random House edition under the name "The Golden Sleepy Book" there were three main differences that I noticed. Mostly the song "All the Pretty Little Horses" had colored illustrations that catches the charm of that lullaby for those who love horses and the missing 15-page story of "The Dreaming Bunny". And last the book ends on the poem "Whip-poor-will" - a nice little wind-down to close this book.

As for this edition, the Western Publishing edition, "Whip-poor-will" is left out so the book just seems to end rather sharply and the beautiful charm of "All the Pretty Little Horses" is drowned in sienna coloring. For those who get a choice I would most definitely recommend the Random House title instead of this edition.

As for the items in this collection:

-The Whispering Rabbit is a story about a sleepy bunny whose open mouth invites a drowsy bee in where he falls asleep. The story is a bit dull without much plot but the suggestions of the sounds the little rabbit tries to make and their description are quite intriguing.

-Rabbit Poem - A poem that really doesn't fit into this book as the rabbit doesn't go to sleep. Instead the poem just describes a white rabbit with its red eyes.

-The Dreaming Bunny - Another story not included in this edition but in Random House. It gives 15 pages to a rabbit resembling the grasshopper in the Fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant so as a result he spends the day woolgathering as everyone else works hard. Although he is lazy and lost in his own world the story makes a good point that even creatures like this have their own place and can sometimes pick-up on clues that others miss since they are too busy thus helping to become heroes even when they aren't hero-material. Due to its page length even though the majority of it is illustrations i can see why Golden Books would leave it out. And what is with all these rabbits having ruby-red eyes?

-Close Your Eyes - A nice rhyming poem that selects different animals and tries to move them from their daily activities to bedtime. To tie everything together besides the theme is the fact that each little ending couplet for the animals includes skies and eyes although specialized to the animal in question.

-All the Pretty Little Horses - I think this has been the version that I have remembered for so long and I was happy to see it again. The horses are realistic, the colors are gorgeous and the book gives this lullaby first as a poem then in music format for those who may be interested in the music format.

-Going To Sleep - A small essay about all the different ways that animals sleep while giving both the bear and raccoon human beds in contrast to the other animals. This is where this version closed off while it had no discernible closing thus left the book hanging.

-Whip-poor-will - A small poem that possibly could be passed off for a really short lullaby. I really enjoyed this a lot out of the book for it set the perfect tone for closing the book by quietly unwinding the reader and leading to the perfect book closing moment on the note of the whip-poor-will.

Although there are some jewels found in these books, I am not sure it would make for any actual good night stories but instead probably be more a nostalgic read for those who have already read these stories in their youth.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has several stories and poems of various lengths. All are descriptive of various animals that are getting ready for bed; all except one, which is about a bunny that daydreams (i.e. lazy, but manages to save the day and be considered a hero).

Ages: 4 - 8

Here’s a few of our bedtime favs: watch my reel!

Content Considerations: see above for bunny story.

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[Juushika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Various bedtime stories, songs, and poems, the contents varying between editions, with some of these longer works published as standalone texts elsewhere, all of which makes this a beast to review. The compact, collected work is convenient and allows for very short work that couldn't stand alone, but lacks the expansive, satisfying, fully illustrated read-along format of a picture book. So The Whispering Rabbit is better as a standalone; but Goodnight Little One aka Little Donkey Close Your Eyes, which can be read as standalones, feel a little slight and this is why: they could also just be two pages in a book of lullabies. The 1975 edition is the more complete, and it's the only place I've seen The Dreaming Bunny, which is worth seeking out, dreamy and beautiful with a message (everyone is "contributing," even if their contributions are unseen or undervalued) that I appreciate.

[Adrianne Rosal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very cute book about going to sleep!!

[Christy Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had different things about going to sleep on here. The rabbit with the new in it's mouth sleeping was just odd. It showed poems about It here animals and had song about horses. It was cute.

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well I can see why it’s called the sleepy book. It was so boring even I struggled to keep awake reading it to the kids.

[Little Seesaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a little collection of poems, stories, and lullabies. Very nice art work.

[Elizabeth Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute collection of short stories and poems. Just overall wholesome peaceful vibes.
(G rating)

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of short stories, poems and songs to encourage sleep. Some short stories are better than others.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Wise Brown & Garth Williams make a good pair! Beautifully illustrated.
Nice stories to wind down the day.

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gift from the residents of Reedsburg Area Senior Life Center…did not finish

[Merri Platt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has several little stories, poems and a song about going to bed. The first little story is about a little rabbit who swallows a bee and tries to get it out of her mouth so that she can sleep. The bee finally wakes up and leaves the rabbits mouth so the rabbit can go to sleep. The second story is about a little bunny that sits in a little cabbage leaf and watches all the rabbits as they do all their work. The think she isn't doing anything but as predators start to come and steal the bunnies, she alerts them to the danger. The bunnies realize that the little bunny really does protect them. There was two poems about more little animals and what they do at night to go to sleep and then the last little book is the musical score to All the Little Ponies.
I must admit that I really didn't enjoy this book. I thought the stories were too short and really didn't have a morale to the story. The second story had a little bit of morale which was that the one bunny was doing a job by protecting every body. The poem was kind of long and really didn't have a morale or a real story. The end of the story with the song was just weird to me. The text was easy to read but it really didn't make sense to me. The illustrations were pretty good and crisp. They did have a lot of color and do think the young readers would enjoy just looking at the pictures. I doubt that I would ever read this book again.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally had a tiny Golden Book of this book (which is sadly gone now) so I picked up a normal sized book as a replacement. Like The Golden Bunny, this book is a collection of smaller stories.

"The Whispering Rabbit" - A bee flies into rabbit's throat when he yawns so rabbit has to whisper so he won't wake up the bee.

"Rabbit" - A poem

"All The Pretty Little Horses" - The familiar lullaby. I am wondering if Brown wrote this or not.

"Close Your Eyes" - a longer poem about different animals closing their eyes to go to sleep

"Going to Sleep" - a story about how different animals get ready to go to sleep

This is a great bedtime book because it can be read in sections or all together based on your child's attention span.

[Marya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains a mishmosh of stories and poems, all with a slumbering theme. The first is the story of a rabbit who swallows a bumblebee when he yawns (without covering his mouth). He then must try to make the smallest sound he can to get the bee to leave his throat. There's a short poem about a bunny, the song "All the Little Horses", a litany asking all these animals to fall asleep, and then a prose piece about various types of animals around the world falling asleep.

The illustrations are suitably soft and darker in shading, which combined with the soft, slow chant my mother used to read this in, is a sure-fire way to get a kid to wind down.

[Yvensong · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this to meet my Personal Reading Challenge -- A book from your childhood

I don't specifically remember this from my childhood, but since I had just about every Little Golden Book out in the early 1950s, this was probably in my library.

This book is a collection of short stories and poems. The first story, "The Whispering Rabbit" was a bit disturbing. I wonder if this is why I don't specifically remember this book. I can't imagine the nightmares I would have had thinking of a bee getting stuck in my throat.

The rest of the stories were okay. The last story, "Going to Sleep" is one I do remember. Maybe it was on my mother read to me a few times.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of these stories were really sweet and soothing. But I found the scientific inaccuracies in the first story annoying, specifically that the bee would drink honey from an apple blossom. I'm okay with the rest of it, but that struck me as something a child could believe. The Rabbit Poem was terrible and strange. And the illustrations for the last bit were confusing -- some are realistic while others portray anthropomorphized animals even though the text describes them as fully animal.

[Jessica Lowery · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the different animals need their sleep in this book, whether it’s a rabbit that has swallowed a bumblebee, a hibernating bear, or a child tucked into bed listening to this book. Margaret Wise Brown uses story, poem, song, and a chant to lull the reader to sleep in this vintage book. A great variety of literary styles and classic illustrations make this book a nostalgic favorite.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. I love the whispering in it. LOL Margaret Wise Brown is one of my favorite children's book authors. The illustrations are fun/beautiful and the stories are endearing. This one is a perfect bedtime story, with the description of several animals going to sleep.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a compile of short stories, poems and just small things to read to a child. From wildlife animals to farm animals the writer has fun with them and gets on a child's level. Cute Little Golden Book...to set the stage for bedtime...

[Mindy Borchardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite Golden Book bedtime story. I loved hearing about little animals, I loved the Garth Williams animal illustrations, I loved Margaret Wise Brown's stories and poems about sleep. I think it worked!

[Rosanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute stories!

[Jessie Horcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is filled with various bedtime stories of sleepy animals. I would use it to read to sleepy kids when its time to relax. The stories include talk about different noises, poems, and songs.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some cute poem/lullabies. The first story is just ugh.

[Michael Nalbone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A flashback to my youth.