Sleep, Sleep, Sleep: A Lullaby for Little Ones Around the World

by Nancy Van Laan, Holly Meade (Illustrator)

Rhythmic, soothing verses offer a gentle lullaby for children everywhere as mothers around the world bid their babies good night, each in their own special language.

Genres: Childrens, Cultural, Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Nancy Van Laan was born in Baton Rouge, La. Her father was a colonel in the US Air Force, and the family moved frequently as Van Laan was growing up. She began making up stories to pass the time on long car trips. Although Van Laan had a learning disability, she loved to read. She began drawing and writing poetry as a child and enjoyed illustrating her own stories. Van Laan also loved ballet and began taking lessons at the age of nine. By age seventeen, she had her own ballet company in Birmingham that performed on a weekly program broadcast on Alabama Educational TV (now Alabama Public Television). Van Laan’s dancing career ended after an injury she sustained as a student at Sullins College in Bristol, Va. After completing her AA degree at Sullins, she enrolled at the University of Alabama, earning her BA in radio and television in 1961.

Van Laan moved to New York after college. She worked briefly at an advertising company and then joined ABC-TV where she worked as a network censor from 1962 to 1966. Van Laan began writing at this time and also studied art. After her first two children were born, she resigned from ABC and began painting professionally, creating murals for schools and private clients. She earned an MFA in theater from Rutgers University in 1979 and wrote two plays which were performed regionally. Van Laan moved to eastern Pennsylvania where she taught English at a private boarding school from 1984 to 1989. She also taught creative writing at Rutgers from 1986 to 1989. Van Laan published her first book, The Big Fat Worm, in 1987. Two years later, she left teaching to write full time. Since then, Van Laan has published over two dozen books. One of these, Rainbow Crow, was featured on the PBS television series Reading Rainbow. Van Laan lives and writes in Doylestown, Pa.

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking at the double page spread illustration for Europe for this lullaby I finally realized my attraction to her art work is the combination of collage and a folk art style in many of her illustrations. This lullaby is written very simply by Nancy Van Laan with stanzas for baby humans and animals on each of the seven continents. You read a couple of lines that the mother is lullabies her baby with three word in the native language followed by the word sleep three times which sets one up to understand theirs sleep in seven languages. Great title for a peaceful goodnight story, wonderful beginning for cross cultural language and the art certainly the settings of the cross cultural settings. Much thought and expertise went into the final version of this title!

Copyright 1995

[Sarah Limb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautiful! The illustration is wonderful and fun, the diversity and appreciation for other cultures and species is so sweet. I loved this book, it is perfect for reading to children when they are going to bed.

[Marilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great!

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the sweet text and I adore Holly Meade's illustrations.

[Kelly Coyle DiNorcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I SO love this book - it may be my all-time favorite children's book to date. I don't normally like books in this style because it feels kind of, oh, I don't know...artificial. Look at how all the *other* people live, you know? But this one I love, for a lot of reasons. One is that I really love the illustrations - simple, vibrant, clear. The text is rhythmic and poetic, a perfect bedtime story. I love that the North American mother is a Navajo, not a suburban mom. I love that it includes non-human mothers as well, showing children that it isn't just us bipeds who have important, loving family relationships. There are moms in the book babywearing and co-sleeping, taking a nap outside under a tree, and a community of women cooking together while they presumably share the child-rearing responsibilities. This one was a great find.

[Carey H · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes children around the world, as parents and animals around the world bid their children good night--telling them "sleep, sleep, sleep" in their own language. A mother in Africa says, "Robala, robala, robala", while a mother in Europe says, "Sove, sove, sove". The giraffe says "nibba, nibba, nibba", and the leopard says, "purr, purr, purr".

This book is a great introduction to geography and various cultures. The pictures are wonderfully unique.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures could be not bright enough for story time but this is a wonderful book with a lot of repetition and animal sounds. Telling the story of how people in different parts of the world sing their babies to sleep. Comparing it to animals who sing their babies to sleep too. unfortunately there is not a guide in the back that lets the reader know how to pronounce the different sounds that mothers make.