I'm Still Up!

March 7, 2022
A child delights in being “up” in this visually spare nighttime board book. As a yellow sun half-dips below the bottom of the opening page (“The sun is down”), a light-brown-skinned child, whose hair visually echoes the sun’s rays, peeks up from the facing page (“but I am up”). Against a progressively darkening blue backdrop, the young figure remarks that, though “The moon is up,// like me,” everyone else—pets and parents both—is “sleepy,” all the while insisting “but not me” with fading grin, drooping eyelids, and lowering head, until a yawn portends the inevitable conclusion. Portis’s spongy illustrations capture a child’s transition to sleep with a pleasing simplicity that’s easily graspable by those developing first slumber-time routines. Publishing simultaneously: I’m Up! Ages up to 3.

April 22, 2022
Preschool In this companion volume to I'm Up! (2022), it's bedtime, but Baby is awake and proud of it, standing in the crib, gripping the rail, and pointing out that Cat, Pup, Bear, and even Mama and Daddy are sleepy, "but not me." Portis' expressive illustrations show Baby's round head gradually lowering behind the rail like the setting sun, as drowsiness becomes irresistible. Written with simplicity and clarity, the childlike narrative is accessible to the very young, while adult readers will feel the parents' relief at the story's end, when they deliver the last words in a whisper, "Baby's sleeping."

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