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Just Go To Bed Mercer Mayer Random House Books for Young Readers
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child pleasing read … Highly recommended … 5 stars
Little Critter and mouse return.
Little Critter is a cowboy who can lasso anything. Dad says "It's time for the cowboy to come inside and get ready for bed." Indoors; Little Critter, without his cowboy hat, boots, vest neckerchief and guns, sports a paper 'admiral's hat.' On the floor, his soldiers, tanks and mouse with a cannon look forward to their orders. "It's time for the general to take a bath."
An irritable Little Critter clothed in his 'jammies', toting his Bunny and none too anxious for bed is heading for the stairs on the cover of this Mercer Mayer work. Mouse is found sitting on the bottom tread. Just inside the cover on the title page we find another view, Little Critter is just as grumpy, however, the jammies are dragging on the floor behind Little Critter, stalwart mouse tramps at the side of buddy.
And so it goes, with his rocket in hand, Little Critter is a space cadet. Dad appears, and he carries the little space cadet to the bathroom where mouse is diving into a bubble filled tub. Before long; Little Critter is a sea monster doing violence to his bathtub ship. A slightly damp mouse is clinging to the ship when Dad appears holding LC's bath robe.
Snacktime finds Little Critter in the kitchen, peanut butter sandwich in one hand, chocolate chip cookie in the other. Mouse enjoys his cookie, surrounded by a horde of 'zoo animals' needing to be fed.
"Feeding time is over. Here are the zookeeper's pajamas."
Super Critter flies over the town, the train engineer is pursued by bandits. Once again Little Critter's patient dad reappears, little pajamas in hand, and a neckerchief masking his face.
"The bandit chief has caught you so put on your pajamas."
And, in a flash, a race car driver just speeds away.
A stern faced dad holds those pajamas, LC looks as though he may at last be bound for bed.
"I'm a bunny hopping around my garden."
Dad says, "Just Go To Bed!"
Protesting to the end, LC, quilt pulled up to his chin protests, "But I'm a bunny and bunnies don't sleep in a bed."
And the last page shows where a tired Little Critter bunny sleeps with his mouse buddy snoozing on his tummy.
I will admit, I read the Little Critter books a lot when my own children were little boys and again in my K - 1 classrooms in California. Because I love them as much as those children, I kept the books when I left teaching, perhaps forever, when husband and I moved away from California over a decade ago.
It wasn't long before I realized, 'you can take the teacher out of the class, but you cannot take the class out of the teacher,' or something like that. Every fall as the new school term rolled around the same old tug began. How hard, I wondered, will it be to turn a California Life Credential into one that will allow me to teach in Oklahoma… very hard I was told. So, filled with some trepidation I checked out the Oklahoma School site, downloaded the application and sent off my money order, found a position, and began teaching.
"You will hate it." I was told. "Kids today are a lot different."
I wondered whether to take Mercer Mayer with me to my classroom. These young, worldly wise, computer game playing kids may want something with a lot more jazz.
Yeah, right.
Little Critter, his family, Mouse et al are preferred as often as ever they were for 'free time reading,' for 'I'm the leader and I want this book read today,' and for anytime we have a little free time and choice is given as what to do.
"Read Little Critter to us." Is heard often and L O U D, in Mrs. Martin's first grade class.
The first graders in my class all giggle, talk about younger siblings or cousins doing precisely as does Little Critter when trying to prolong bed time. And, with sidelong glances they divulge that they too make use of countless of the maneuverings as well.
Mercer Mayer is a writer/illustrator who truly recognizes the psyche of young children. He presents child pleasing images adding to a most child pleasing read. Together that was an unconquerable combination twenty years ago, and it remains so today.
Permanent favorite "Just Go To Bed" is a must have for the pleasure reading shelf of little folks ages 2 – 6 and 7. Older kids may well sneak a peek when they think the grown ups are not watching. My former 4th graders, now 5th grade grown ups take pleasure in reading Mercer Mayer to 'the little kids.'
Happy to recommend "Just Go To Bed" for the classroom library, school, home school and public library catalogs.
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