Chester Raccoon and the Almost Perfect Sleepover
Written by Audrey Penn
illustrated by Barbara L.Gibson
The storyline is perfect for children who are interested and excited about their first sleepover but maybe a little hesitant or may have had the experience of wanting to go home rather than stay. It would be a good book for a discussion of emotions around sleeping at someone else’s house. I think I’d be a little careful about reading it with a group who has never had a sleepover. It could be read to a mixed group of children – those who have stayed over and those who have not. My hesitation is about not wanting to plant a seed in a child’s mind about not wanting to stay when it otherwise might not have been there.
If you have a child who has been invited to her first sleepover and she expresses some anxiety about it, depending on the degree of anxiety, you might want to encourage your child to try it. At the same time, you can assure her that if it’s too much, she can always come home. You be the judge of what’s right for your child.
Once again, the characters in this book are animals acting and thinking like humans. The good news is that they are not dressed in human clothes and don’t live in a human house. I think that you will find the same is true for other books in the series.
Tomorrow’s Child / January 2018 / p 32
