Where Do Big Creatures Sleep at Night?
Steven J. Simmons, author
Steven J. Simmons has been a professor of law and government, a White House aide on domestic policy, and a leader in the cable industry. Steven is the author of the best-selling children's book, Alice and Greta: A Tale of Two Witches.
Read more about Steven.
Clifford R. Simmons, author
Clifford R. Simmons's lifelong passion for writing and love for his nieces and nephews fuels his enthusiasm for children's books and co-authorship with his father, Steven. Cliff formerly worked at Google and now runs his own business.
Read more about Clifford.
Ruth Harper, illustrator
Ruth Harper is a self-taught artist from England. She loves to echo nature in her work. She lives in Iowa with an adorable husband—they have six grown-up kids between them (plus handfuls of grandbabies!). She is the illustrator of the NYT bestseller The Kissing Hand (with Nancy M. Leak), Sassafras, and Happy Mamas.
Read more about Ruth.
- Coming soon!
Kirkus Reviews
Animals from lions and elephants to crocodiles and anacondas bed down.
Actually, when it comes to the anaconda, “no one really knows if it actually does sleep.” But that’s not the only poetic license the father-and-son co-authors take as they record in stumbling metrics (“An ostrich is a bird that’s incredibly tall. / Its eggs can be bigger than a softball”) and a notably loose rhyme scheme not only where, but how various animals larger than those in Steven J. Simmons’ Where Do Creatures Sleep at Night? (2021), illustrated by Harper,first spend their days and then enjoy their downtime. The connection between text and images isn’t all that firm either, as the silverback gorilla gets male pronouns and the pride of lions collective ones, but all the rest of the animals are nongendered as its even though they appear to be mothers, since Harper depicts them alone with offspring in cozy proximity. An opening spread of toy animals held by variously toned hands hints at unsurprising closing scenes of human children, including a brown-skinned child, taking the final couplet to heart: “Then at night after you’re fed, / you snuggle up in your own sweet bed!”
Light doses of natural history, but better written and more somniferous bedtime reads abound.
Children's Literature
Where Do Big Creatures Sleep? is an artistic, well told and engaging nonfiction book. The book draws the reader in with recognizable toy animals, and asks the question, where do they sleep? The book then continues in rhyming verse, to give interesting information about a wide variety of big creatures from gorillas and elephants to kangaroos, bears and crocodiles, to name just a few. Each page has a number of general facts about the creature and then looks at how they sleep. The rhyming format engages the reader's attention and is a sure way to effectively inform a child’s play, imagination and knowledge. The illustrations are beautiful, colorful and crystal clear. Overall, the format of the book and illustrations combine to draw the reader in, engage them, maintain their attention and extend their curiosity. Where Do Big Creatures Sleep? is a real treasure of a book to read at any time, not just as a calming bedtime read.
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-143-9
E-book
ISBN: 978-1-63289-918-7 EPUB
Ages: 3-7
Page count: 32
10 1/2 x 9 1/2