Author(s): Helene Boudreau

PICTURE BOOKS

This is a cautionary tale about the consequences of that most contagious of conditions: yawning. An omniscient narrator warns readers about the perils of yawning (yawns can lead to bedtime), so cautions against listening to lullabies or bedtime stories, or catching others in the process of yawning. But even a book about not yawning is likely to lead to the inevitable...The lists of perils and tonics are comically portrayed with the deceptively childlike drawings of Serge Bloch. A droll and infectious confection. This is a bedtime story parading as an anti-bedtime story, or an anti-bedtime story morphing into a bedtime story - take your pick! It capitalizes on the peculiarly infectious and inherently comical act of yawning. The book itself becomes a game, a dare, an interactive challenge - can YOU stifle a yawn while reading all about yawns? Serge Bloch's hip, spare style will be familiar to adults; his use of exaggeration and distortion will make children laugh.