“The Sleep Book,” published in 1962, is one of my favorites by the world-famous Dr. Seuss. The purpose of the book is to make the young listener sleepy, and it’s done in a clever and creative way, of course in Dr. Seuss style. It even comes with a warning that it should be read in bed.
We begin by learning that a very small bug named Van Vleck is yawing so widely, you can see down his neck. We all know that yawns are contagious, so soon, all of Van Vleck’s friends are yawning too, which spreads from creature to creature all across the land. Even the Biffer-Baum Birds are getting ready for bed by building their nest. They’ve got everything tangled up, but they look happy, so I guess it’s going according to schedule.
The Herk-Heimer sisters have gone to the waterfall to brush their teeth, and the draw-bridge drawer at the Kingdom of Krupp has brought the bridge up and has no intention of lowering it again until morning. He means it, too.
All of the stilts in the stilt-walkers hall have been put away for the night while the stilt-walkers sleep, and the same goes for the Hinkle-Horn Honking Club. The Collapsible Frink has just collapsed himself for the night, and the Hoop-Soup-Snoop Group has just headed out on their nightly stroll.
Meanwhile, the moose is dreaming of moose drinks, and the goose is asleep, dreaming of goose drinks. But if they were to start dreaming each other’s dreams, and the moose were to drink goose juice and the goose were to drink moose juice, well, that would be a disaster.
Throughout the book, a tally has been kept of just how many people and creatures have drifted off to sleep, and as soon as you go to bed, the count will be ninety-nine zillion, nine trillion and three. Good night.
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