Sometimes, getting a good night’s sleep is no easy task. I’m a fairly
light sleeper, and I find myself distracted by all sorts of nighttime
noises, so I can relate to the plight of Mr. Bear in Peace At Last, Jill Murphy’s cute tale of nocturnal woe. It reminds me of Let Papa Sleep,
in which a pair of rambunctious rabbits receive repeated reprimands
from their mother to keep the noise down so their father can sleep
soundly. In this case, however, Mrs. Bear is utterly oblivious to her
husband’s problem. In fact, she is its most immediate cause.
Mr. Bear cannot sleep. The trouble starts with the fact that Mrs. Bear
falls asleep first, and she is a snorer. A loud snorer. I once shared a
living room with a sleeping pig, and I certainly didn’t get much sleep
that night. I can only imagine how much more noise a bear would make.
So, although Mr. Bear, Mrs. Bear and Baby Bear all go to bed tired, Mr.
Bear does not fall asleep. It soon becomes clear that the youngster
hasn’t hit the hay either, for Mr. Bear’s attempt to achieve blissful
slumber in his son’s room is hampered by the lad’s very active
imagination.
No matter where he goes, poor Mr. Bear finds
himself surrounded by aggravating sounds. As his aggravation grows, he
repeats his despairing refrain: “Oh, NO! I can’t stand THIS.” His
actions are consistent with his words. On each page, we see him in
different surroundings, attempting to bury his head under his blanket or
muffle the offending noise by placing a pillow over his ears.
Meanwhile, Murphy shows us what is happening in the rest of the area
where he has chosen to attempt a nap.
In general, the pages on
the left are in black and white and contain simple text, while the
pages on the right are in full color. There’s a soft, fuzzy quality to
the drawings that emphasizes the cuddliness of these bears and the
comfort of their homey existence. For the most part, the left-hand pages
are white, but a couple of them are black, so that the words and
illustrations on these pages are in white, which creates a rather
cool-looking effect. One such page shows a bat flapping to meet the sky;
another shows a pair of cats convening on a bright wall.
The
right-hand pages are the most fun, though, as they show Mr. Bear’s
discomfort in vibrant detail. He’s a lovable fellow, so I suppose it’s
not very nice to laugh at him, but I suspect most of us have suffered at
least one night of similar sleeplessness, so the laughter is more out
of sympathy than derision. Meanwhile, because the focus is on the
parent, perhaps young children might be more inclined to take pity on
their sleepy parents and keep the noise to a dull roar when naps are in
progress.
Peace At Last is a funny book designed to
encourage laughter and participation from children in the
pre-kindergarten set. The writing is basic and repetitive, and there’s a
very simple structure to the story that makes it easy to anticipate
what will happen next. Thus, this is a great bedtime story, with a
surprise here and there to add interest. For tiny tots whose bedtimes
would not be complete without a teddy bear or two, Peace At Last is a cozy way to head off to dreamland.
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