Born in South Korea and educated in London, illustrator Il Sung Na makes his American debut with A Book of Sleep.
“It’s the rare picture book that, upon arrival, feels as though it has been around for years already,” noted Publisher’s Weekly.
The opening line sets the stage for the story: When the sky grows dark and the moon glows bright, everyone goes to sleep . . .except for the watchful owl!
This wide-eyed owl proceeds on a moonlit journey to see how the other animals sleep the night away.
“One of the sweetest and most original of the new nighttime picture books,” author Liz Rosenberg wrote in The Boston Globe. “Both children and adults will welcome its…archetypical beauty.”
The book contrasts sparse text with rich, textured illustrations of a starry night.
“So thoroughly does the book inhabit its sleepy world,” author Daniel Handler commented in a New York Times review. Handler is best known for penning the A Series of Unfortunate Events books under the Lemony Snicket pseudonym.
A Book of Sleep is available as a 24-page hardcover book from Knopf Books for Young Readers.
This article was originally published by the AASM on Dec. 12, 2009.
