Sleepy Book

There are soooo many different  illustrated versions of this book! Sleepy Book was originally published in 1958 by Lothrop, Lee and Shepherd. It was written by Charlotte Zolotow and illustrated by Vladimir Bobri. My favorite versions are these vintage ones with Bobri's art.

The illustrations  are on black paper and the text in this book is  a hand-cut blockletter by Rudolf Koch, in gray ink on the black pages. It's fantastic! I wish I owned a copy.....
This one's from the library.

Sleepy Book was brought out by Harper& Row in 1988 with pictures by Ilse Plume (Plume cover pictured above)

then reissued a third time in 2001 by HarperCollins with simple, colorful illustrations by Stefano Vitale (the Vitale cover above) .
This timeless classic to sleepiness has long outlived its first publisher and outlasted two name changes on its second. I wonder if yet another future generation will see it differently?

Charlotte Zolotow's  words are soothing and lyrical making it the perfect bedtime book:
"The snowy crane sleeps standing on one long leg like a flower on its stem"..."Spiders when they sleep are like small ink spots in the middle of their lacy webs"..."But little boys and girls, when the night comes and the wind whispers gently in the trees and the stars sparkle and shine, sleep warm under their blankets in their beds."
Visit Charlottes website here to learn more about her timeless classic books.