Arlo The Lion Who Couldn't Sleep

Product Information

Pace, repetition and the conjuring of a cosy, comforting world are key, as classics such as Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon perfectly demonstrate.

Arlo the Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep – Peachtree Publishing Arlo the Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep – Peachtree Publishing

It does feel like efforts are being made in the children’s publishing world to be more diverse, with a small but notable increase of late in new picture books starring BAME characters ( Julian Is a Mermaid, The Girls, Billy and the Beast…). Award winning author and illustrator Catherine Rayner tells us the story of Arlo, the lion who couldn't sleep.Taking Time by Jo Loring-Fisher (7 September) is a poem witnessing children all over the world as they interact with nature – listening to the sea in a shell, watching a spider weave its home. A] pretty wash of a painting…shows the lion bleeding into a landscape that itself seems to be bleeding into air—an illustration that looks the way the drift and untethering of falling asleep feels. The Sunday Times named Norris, The Bear Who Shared a 100 Children’s Modern Classic of the past decade. But the ragtag bunch of misfits trying to get a lift down to the beach with a surfer might be familiar, from the red-caped girl escaping a wolf to the retired superhero pulling a wheelie case. Her work has won the Kate Greenaway Medal and has been short-listed for the same award numerous times.

Authors Live Catherine Rayner - BBC Authors Live Catherine Rayner - BBC

Rayner’s soothing language effectively sets the stage for addressing a frequent childhood problem… The lullaby portion of the story appears in wavy lines, emphasizing its lyric qualities. Hitchhikers are a rare breed nowadays so the context for The Ride (Tate) by Brazilian author-illustrator Guilherme Karsten could need some explaining to kids. Bryon’s text and Adeola’s pictures work well together to capture the fizzing energy of young children and, as Rocket sets about sorting the plastic pollution she encounters on Grampy’s beach, there’s also a positive environmental message. And the book feels solid enough to survive sun-cream splats and soggy tent corners if you take it away with you.While some of the rhyming doesn’t trip off the tongue as easily as you’d like, this book is such a riot – full of eye-popping pictures the colour of ketchup and hazy sunshine – that it’s a joy to be along for the ride.