About the Holiday
Are you still revved up from the holidays? Having trouble getting back into your usual sleep routine? Feeling a bit discombobulated, grumpy, or just plain tired? Without enough sleep our wellbeing suffers. We’re more susceptible to illness, our work drags, we’re not as alert when driving, and our mood can be a little…well…see above. If you’re not getting enough sleep, today’s holiday encourages you to rethink your routines or get back to them. Make sure your mattress and pillow are comfortable and that your bedroom is not too hot or too cold. Putting a priority on sleep will make you feel better all day!
Sleep Tight Farm: A Farm Prepares for Winter
Written by Eugenie Doyle | Illustrated by Becca Stadtlander
As the winter days become shorter, a family readies their farm for bed. With most of the crops harvested—“strawberries, raspberries, vegetables, honey, and hay—now is the time to prepare for deep front, the coming wind and snow.” The berry plants are blanketed with straw that will keep them warm until June when “they’ll give fruit so red and juicy we’ll make jam and freeze berries to eat till summer comes again.”
Image copyright Becca Stadtlander, 2016, text copyright Eugenie Doyle, 2016. Courtesy of Chronicle Books.
The last of the kale, chard, broccoli, carrots, beets, and potatoes are cut and dug and placed in storage in the barn to “await winter markets and our own winter meals!” With everything put away, the family calls, “Good night, fields, peaceful and still.” Then it’s time to cut and stack wood that will heat the farmhouse during the cold months and fire up the sugarhouse for making maple syrup in early spring.
Image copyright Becca Stadtlander, 2016, text copyright Eugenie Doyle, 2016. Courtesy of Chronicle Books.
The hoophouse, home to the “baby greens…with mouth-filling names—spinach, mizuna, tatsoi, arugula—” that “will nap till stronger sun can wake them” is secured to the ground to keep it in place through winter’s howling winds. Out in the chicken coop, a timer is set to “give the hens the light they need to lay eggs all winter.” Fresh grain and hay and a water heater keeps the chickens well fed and comfortable. “Good night, chickens, snug in your coop.” A wall of hay bales creates a wind break for the bee hives and the entrances are narrowed to keep field mice out.
Image copyright Becca Stadtlander, 2016, text copyright Eugenie Doyle, 2016. Courtesy of Chronicle Books.
The last of the harvest stocks the farm stand with “fresh eggs, greens and roots, onions and garlic braids, decorative corn, honey and maple syrup.” Finally, the farm vehicles are driven into the equipment shed. Back in the farmhouse, the wood stove glows, and colored lights rim the roof and windows. Beeswax candles on the sills “soften the longest night.” As white flakes softly fall, “the farm is ready for down quilts of snow, the shh-shh of the wind…. Good night, farmers, sleep tight. Sleep tight, farm.”
Image copyright Becca Stadtlander, 2016, text copyright Eugenie Doyle, 2016. Courtesy of Chronicle Books.
Eugenie Doyle’s quiet memories of a busy year as a family buttons up their farm, remembering the crops of luscious fruit and hardy vegetables, hot days of summer, and fall’s sweet honey offer a dreamy beginning to winter. With lyrical phrasing, she shows young readers the work that goes into preparing a farm for winter so that the plants and animals are well taken care of as they wait for warmer weather. Doyle’s straightforward storytelling, sprinkled with evocative verbs and adjectives, will enchant children, who may see similarities between the snug farm and the changes in their own routines during a cold, but cozy winter.
Becca Stadtlander’s folk-art inspired paintings are rich in color as they take readers from the warm farmhouse kitchen out to the fields, where green rows of berry plants, still dotted with red fruit become golden as hay is strewn over them, the wood pile behind the house grows, a sheath of white cloth is gently unfurled, and the beehives are secured from weather and interlopers. Children accustomed to visiting farmers markets will recognize many of the fruits and vegetables depicted and will long for the reopening of their local store when spring arrives again.
A beautiful book to share during cold-weather story times, Sleep Tight Farm will be a favorite of young gardeners and foodies and of any child who loves farms, nature, and family togetherness.
Ages 4 – 8
Chronicle Books, 2016 | ISBN 978-1452129013
To learn more about Becca Stadtlander, her books, and her art, visit her website.
Festival of Sleep Day Activity
Flashlight Fun Maze
It may be time for bed, but there’s always time for a little flashlight fun! Can you follow the beam of the flashlight to find the kids sneaking one last story in this printable maze?
Flashlight Fun Maze | Flashlight Fun Maze Solution
You can find Sleep Tight Farm: A Farm Prepares for Winter at these booksellers
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-a-Million | IndieBound
Picture Book Review
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