August 1, 2021
PreS-K-Nicolas loves to listen to stories, but his father is very, very sleepy-far too sleepy to tell a story. But when Nicolas insists, his father weaves five tall tales that fall somewhere between the waking world and dream land. Nicolas fights to keep his father awake as he imagines a sleepy man who curls up in an umbrella during a downpour, or another who stretches himself across town, limb by limb, until his exhausted body is entirely in his bed. Written in a format that mimics social media storytelling, Levrero captures the feeling of an exhausted parent attempting to appease a beloved, very imaginative child. Bianki's art gives the story a dreamy, otherworldly quality that is as charmingly and deliberately chaotic as the story itself. VERDICT A wholly relatable story for parents who must read "just one more," and a solid first purchase for story hours.-Erica Deb, Matawan Aberdeen P.L., NJ
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Starred review from May 15, 2021
Young Nicol�s has a voracious appetite for stories and no sympathy for a profoundly sleepy storyteller. In a work told as a scripted dialogue, a storyteller identified only as "Me" spins the yarns to Nicol�s, often yawning and nodding off midstory. But Nicol�s is ever demanding, wanting those sleepy stories now. The six tales, told over three days, are all extremely bizarre. A man is too sleepy to make it home, so he curls up inside his umbrella until a heavy rain causes him to nearly drown. Another man stretches one part of his body at a time until his head reaches home and he pulls the rest of himself into bed. After more tales involving a skateboard and a long swim, monkeys and seals, robbers, and long bus rides, Nicol�s asks for yet another, and it all comes to an abrupt, unexplained end. Bianki's equally strange, deeply hued, full- and double-page illustrations alternate between depictions of the tales and scenes of the characters. Nicol�s and "Me" seem to be a pair of birds with tuxedo tails, wearing shoes and socks on their long legs. They are seen at a table, atop a peacock with its egg alongside, in a tree, on a dog's back, and in other odd positions, with "Me" holding a book, perhaps this very one. The tales' actions are vividly depicted, with the addition of many odd bits and pieces floating through. Young readers and their perplexed grown-ups will want to read and reread again and again. Wildly imaginative, surreal, beautiful...in a word, this Argentine import is fabulous. (Picture book. 5-9)
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