Scardey Squirrel at Night

Scaredy Squirrel at Night

Written and Illustrated by Melanie Watt
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Ages 3-8

Scaredy Squirrel finds ways to stay awake night after night because he is afraid of what might appear in his dreams.  Scaredy Squirrel is soon suffering from the side effects of sleep deprivation so he creates an elaborate plan to catch his nightmares.  His plan is a disaster but in the end he gets a good night of sleep.

In the sequal to "Scaredy Squirrel" Squirrel is still very afraid only now he is afraid of bad dreams.  Squirrel has the same sill and irrational fears which make his story so entertaining, of few of them are: fairies, unicorns and polka-dot monsters.  The books is very interactive from Squirrel's nightime to do list to a posting of horoscopes which kept me interested because they were like glimpses into Squirrels world.  The illustrations give Squirrel so much expression, I love the two page panel spread where we see Squirrel's expresson for; energy loss, moodiness, poor reflexes etc.  It is hilarious to see Squirrel approaching a hysterical breakdown from lack of sleep.

I think children would really enjoy this book because they can recognize how silly Squirrel is being but they can also relate to being scared of bad dreams.  The over the top situations and disasters have a humor that appeals to kids.  It is aslo interactive and keeps the reader looking for new information or details in the pictures.  The artifacts which are included are a good example to children of the wide variety of writing and how it can be combined. 

I would read this out loud to younger students or have them read it in pairs after we had read it together as a class because there is lots of new vocabulary.  I would prompt them to work on their predicting because you never know how Squirrels crazy plans are going to unfold.  I would also ask them to look for "diffe

rent" types of writing in the book and their reactions to it.  We might then dicuss what we would have added or how to use different forms of text in our writing.  We could use "Scaredy Squirrel" as an example and write about what we are scared of and what sort of actions we might take to not be afraid like Squirrel.