Sleepy Puppy and Sleepy Kitty by Sterling Children's Books

Sleepy Puppy is a board book without any credited author. Instead, what the publisher apparently did was purchase images of puppies from various sources to fit the text. Interesting. The result is a book that shows a variety of different puppies rather than a single puppy character. The text is about a puppy who needs to go to bed. But, first, he wants to play, get a drink and a tissue, check for monsters under the bed -- in other words, all the things little kids do to put off going to bed. It's adorable. A peek inside, with apologies for the image quality (I realized I needed to photograph the interior as I was packing and took them rather hurriedly):

Eventually puppy gets comfortable and falls asleep and the final image in Sleepy Puppy shows a little boy sleeping next to a puppy.

We spent last weekend visiting family in New Jersey and I took Sleepy Puppy along with me for our granddaughter. I read it to her and helped her turn the pages when she played with it on her own. She absolutely loved it. Her family has a dog, so I thought she'd prefer Sleepy Puppy to Sleepy Kitty, the companion board book (which I'm saving for my younger son's possible future children, since he's a cat lover). Sure enough, she was drawn to the photos of puppies. She looked them over, patted them, and smiled.

Sleepy Kitty is much the same as Sleepy Puppy but with slightly different wording and, of course, kitties featured instead of puppies.

As in Sleepy Puppy, the kitties (mostly kittens, but not all) resist going to bed, ask for milk and a softer pillow, then eventually give in and go to sleep. The final image is, again, a photo of a human sleeping with a kitty.

Both highly recommended - While the books are similar enough that you could easily choose just one book based on your animal preference, there are slight differences in the wording. Both Sleepy Puppy and Sleepy Kitty are exceptionally cute books in which the text and photos illustrate the typical resistance to bedtime most children go through. They're utterly charming and Sleepy Puppy definitely passed the Small-Child Approval test. I'm sure Sleepy Kitty would have, as well, if I'd brought it along. Granddaughter actually favored Sleepy Puppy over the ABC book I brought along (also a board book). She liked both but spent more time pondering the puppy faces than any particular page of the ABC book.

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