Time for Bed, Fred by Yasmeen Ismail

It’s time for Fred to go to bed, but this dog is not ready!  Instead of heading to bed, Fred dashes outside and tries to hide in the flower bed.  Then he hides in a tree until he falls out of it.  Fred then runs and lands in a huge mud puddle.  So then it’s bath time for Fred.  But just when he’s finally clean, he dashes outside once more!  Back inside, he hides in all sorts of places, even after he gets read a bedtime story.  Finally, Fred is moved to the right bed and falls asleep at last.

Fred is a dog that every toddler will relate to.  From his busyness as he dashes from place to place to his unwillingness to head to bed to the final collapse in exhaustion at the end of the day, Fred reacts exactly the way a young child does.  Ismail keeps the book moving quickly with her dialogue-only text that captures the reaction of the owner as Fred refuses to head to bed.  This makes the book great fun to read aloud as well.

Ismail’s art is reminiscent of Chris Raschka with her loose lines and free-flowing forms.  It is filled with action and movement as Fred runs through the garden on the loose.  The illustrations have a great ease and freedom to them that works particularly well with the storyline. 

An energetic and playful bedtime read, let’s hope your little puppies settled down at the end too!  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from library copy.