Lucy can’t sleep. The title summarizes the entire story. Lucy tries everything under the sun to help her fall asleep but nothings seems to work.

She tries counting sheep, she climbs out of bed, she searches for her favorite stuffed animal friends, and even sits out on the front porch.  In the end, her dog comes running into the house to the rescue. This helps Lucy fall sound asleep until the morning.

The story’s writing is all over the place. The rhyming theme will keep the child listening, but there is nothing extraordinary about poor Lucy’s restless night. Lucy even wanders down to the fridge, raiding the chocolate pudding, and exits the house at night onto the porch alone in the dark.

In all honesty, I don’t find this story comforting for children to hear. The child should be tucked in by her loved ones, not roaming in and out of the house for an answer to her aggravating, restless night.

On the contrary, the illustrations are not only immaculately detailed, but also humorous. Unfortunately, the colorful pages do not make up for the lack of enlightening theme.

By Amy Schwartz

Hardcover, 30 pages.

Ages 3-7

 I do not recommend this