Everyone’s Awake Review

We received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review Date: March 2nd, 2020

Written By: Colin Melody
Illustrated By: Shawn Harris

Cover Copy

The crickets are all peeping. The moon shines on the lake. We should be soundly sleeping. But Everyone’s Awake!

The night goes on; the family goes crazy. Dad’s baking bread; Mom’s on the roof; Grandma’s playing cards with a ghost. And between the dog, the cat, the Sister, and Brother, there are at least three different wars being waged.

What happens when bedtime gets ignored.

Does morning ever come?

Will anyone ever sleep again?

Review

This is so weird and silly and I kinda love it. It starts off with your more typical “I’m wide awake at bedtime” type of activities, but as the night progresses, everyone in the house becomes more and more wild and wired and weird. Something about the rhythm of the words actually even lends to the feeling of everyone being, as we call it in our house, “slap happy” and silly. My favorite part might actually be the cat, who at one point “is giving poke tattoos and prank-calling the cops” as the image that goes with it cracks me up. This entire book feels like when you rolled yourself down a hill as a kid and you started to get momentum and then you feel yourself starting to panic has you get going really fast, but it’s also a lot of fun so you just hold on till the bottom and then when you stop you just lie there looking up at the clouds as they whirl in circles over your head until you feel steady enough to stand. The art adds a lot to this feeling, I think. It’s a loose style with bright colors and perfectly captured sleep-deprivation-crazed moments. This book is great fun!