Five-Minute Bedtime Sleepy Stories - Ellie Meyer

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Author: Ellie Meyer

Illustrator: Yaroslava Myroshnychenko
Genre: Children's Picture Book
Rating: 5 stars.

A beautiful collection of stories that are soothing and perfect for bedtime.

This lovely book has six tales that are quite distinct from each other. Kids will encounter a nice range of characters herein: a dragon that breathes out dreams, an owlet who falls out of his hole at night, a little fairy who is ignored for her small size, a princess who simply doesn’t sleep, a family of mice who needs pajamas, and a ‘starherd’ who gathers the prancing stars at night.

Most of these tales are apt for bedtime. Rather than stirring up excitement, they take the children into the perfect mood to calm down, snuggle inside their blankies, and enter dreamworld with a smile on their face. Some tales have a dash of magic; others have a touch of friendship and cooperation. The one with the mice was good; the rest were amazing!

While this is a picture book, there is a lot of text per page. The language is simple and understandable for its target age group of 2-7 years. However, it is a book designed to be a bedtime companion, so it will work best if read aloud by a parent/guardian. Each of the tales is two pages long, the perfect length for such stories.

Where the book really stands out is in its illustrations. What amazing sketches! I could stare at them on and on in wonder. Illustrator Yaroslava Myroshnychenko adheres to the theme of the book perfectly, and makes every page an ode to night time. Each page is ‘night-themed’ if I can call it that, with dark tones dominating the colour scheme. Despite this, there are enough of flourishes added in the form of light effects or starry sparkles such that the pages are almost aglow with light.

I am constantly amazed by the talent I see in indie children’s fiction. This book further reaffirms that there is a treasure in this category just waiting to be explored, only if we know where to look.

I would have still rated the book high because of its stories, but its illustrations push me to the topmost rating without any hesitation.

The book is available on Kindle Unlimited.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author at my request and these are my honest thoughts about it.

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