Go to Bed, Monster! by Natasha Wing, illustrated by Sylvie Kantorovitz Ages 4-8 40 pages Harcourt September 2007 Hardcover     When Lucy cannot sleep, she decides to reach for her crayons to construct a playmate of her own. With a few shapes and a wild imagination, she creates a monster who is more than willing to have some fun. They build castles together, march in a parade together, skip together, and play together. The activities exhaust Lucy, who is finally ready to go to bed, only to learn that the monster is not ready to end his day. First, the monster is hungry, so Lucy draws meatballs followed by a request that they go to sleep. The monster isn’t ready and screams that he is thirsty, so she draws some water, followed by a bathroom, which she knows he might need. When the monster says he is cold, she draws a blanket followed by a teddy bear in response to his statement that he is scared. Even then, the monster is still not ready to go to sleep. It is not until Lucy comes up with the perfect activity to induce a good-night’s sleep that she is finally able to convince the monster to go to bed. Then she, too, falls fast asleep, which is not surprising when one considers the exhausting end to her day.     web reviews   Lori West/2008 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)