Sleep Here, Wake There

Cesar is sure that there is a big mystery surrounding why he falls asleep in his bed at night, but the next morning, he wakes up at his aunt’s house. He wonders if maybe he is sleepwalking, or if somehow aliens are involved. Cesar has had enough guessing, so he decides that he will do his best to stay awake to solve this mystery. Will he be able to discover what is going on?

What I Liked: The structure of this book is great for younger children as there are few words per page and the images do a great job of illustrating the plot of the story. Children would be able to follow along with the images throughout this book and make their own guesses as to why Cesar is waking up in a different home. Children will delight in making their own guesses and laugh at the antics that Cesar gets up to in order to solve this bedtime mystery.

The illustrations stand out in this book because we get to see scenes through Cesar’s imagination, and then we get to see that he is drawing each of these scenes on the wall. It’s fascinating to get these two perspectives because one of them brings these scenes to life, and the other reminds us that these are Cesar’s theories of what is happening and not his reality.

Final Verdict: Sleep Here Wake There is a fun and intriguing mystery story about what bed time looks like with a single working mother. This is a great book for children ages 4 and up to show them testing theories, as well as relate to those who may have others look after them while their parents are working. This is a great book to introduce the concept of the scientific method to children, as it shows how to make a hypothesis and then test it out to draw conclusions.