- Lucy Can't Sleep
Little Lucy can't sleep. She tries counting sheep, and when that fails she tries counting "baby otters,/ Mountain goats,/ Kangaroos,/ Sailing boats," but to no avail. She then gets up and, after searching for and finding her dolly and stuffed bear, tries having a snack, swinging on the back-porch swing, and playing a little dress-up before finally falling asleep in her bed. The combination of rhymed couplets and compact unrhymed text is a little jarring, but there's a cozy, safe simplicity to both Schwartz's text and her illustrations that makes this an appealingly quiet and somnolent story. Schwartz's line and watercolor illustrations are pleasantly homey, [End Page 115] and the slightly muted tones and frequent framing of smaller spot illustrations with a page-filling bubble of dark blue lend an appropriately nocturnal air to Lucy's proceedings. Although a few of the interior scenes are a little overpatterned, Lucy is drafted with appealing simplicity (she has the same sweet, round face and minimal features as her rag doll), and her actions are depicted with a warm and easy grace. This would make a snug addition to a bedtime or small-group storytime lineup.