Barnes & NobleA Loud Winter's Nap by Katy Hudson

Good Reading

Hibernation isn’t supposed to be this difficult. Tortoise was such a patient little guy. No matter how many times he was woken up or prevented from falling asleep, he calmly explained his needs yet again to the friends who were being noisy. That can be a tricky thing for people of all ages to master, so it was nice to see such a good example of how to do it here. While many of the interruptions were creative and adorable, I found myself wishing that this picture book would have included a discussion about the importance of respecting other people’s boundaries even if you don’t necessarily understand them. Tortoise made it clear that he needed to sleep through the winter and didn’t want to be disturbed, but his friends refused to listen to him. It’s one thing when this occasionally happens between friends or relatives who feel guilty and learn from their mistakes. Deliberate and repetitive refusals to respect boundaries are quite another. This was something I’d read to the little ones in my life after discussing what healthy relationships look like and why it’s wrong to try to push past people’s limits. If not for that caveat, I would have loved to go for a higher rating as the plot itself was a great deal of fun to read. I did enjoy all of the sound effects included in this story. They made the dialogue come alive in my imagination and were a great deal of fun to say out loud. It was also interesting to see how including words like tap or thud added a layer of humor to something that was otherwise pretty serious. A Loud Winter’s Nap was a humorous look at winter life in the forest. originally posted at long and short reviews