This was a beautiful book. I enjoyed the poems and the illustrations. As well as the information about how animals sleep.

The poems were nice enough, but I really enjoyed reading about how various animals sleep The illustrations were great! I think kids and adults alike would find this book a fascinating read.

What a lovely and interesting book! Learning about the sleeping habits of various creatures was really fun and engaging, and the illustrations compliment the text so well and are just gorgeous! Seventeen creatures of different types are covered, each with a poem, an illustration, and a paragraph about their sleeping habits. While the poems are nothing special, the illustrations and information make this book a great choice for any child's book collection.

#ASongbirdDreamsOfSinging #NetGalley

This book is utterly gorgeous!

Full of exquisite illustrations of various sleeping animals, along with small segments of interesting factual prose about said animals’ sleeping habits, and lovely well-written verses about the same.

I was going to share this with Minishine and Babybows, as it is right up their street, but it was so very beautiful when I had a sneaky preview that I decided to keep the Kindle version to myself and treat them to a hardback copy for their bedroom stories instead!

I can’t think of a better book to gift anyone with children as it features family favourite topics: animals for the children, and sleep for the parents! It is both educational and entertaining, and I wholeheartedly recommend everyone to buy a copy (or lots of copies and gift them).





Oh mighty mothers of the sea
Why do you slumber vertically?
Your sleep is very short it seems
But do you have gigantic dreams?

– Kate Hosford, From ‘The Mysterious Sleep of Mother Whales’ in A Songbird Dreams of Singing

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

What an enticing titlethis book has as well as a beautiful cover. Yes, I just had to know about a songbird’s dreams. In a manner similar to the science books of Dani Rabaiotti and Nick Caruso which investigate animal behavior, we get to learn about the sleep habits and patterns of many varied creatures. But with poetry as well! This is a fascinating little book and a great way to easily learn a lot of information. I would think children would love it and enjoy the illustrations that accompany each poem. Well done. B

Thank you netgalley and Running Press for this arc.

Thank you to Perseus Books, Running Press Kids for a temporary digital edition via NetGalley of ‘A Songbird Dreams of Singing: Poems about Sleeping Animals’ written by Kate Hosford and illustrated by Jennifer M. Potter in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a delightful little book that is both beautiful and educational. The rhyming poems were whimsical and the accompanying illustrations charming and colourful. Each poem is accompanied by an explanation of the sleeping habits of the selected animals.

I can imagine this would make a delightful bedtime book and a great gift for parents of young children.

I am so in love with this little book of poetry and will be purchasing a hard copy of it as soon as it is released. This is all about sleeping animals and incorporates cute little facts about the sleep habits of birds, mammals, and fish, and does so in rhyme that is simple and elegant at the same time. The illustrations are stunning and really make this book something special. Not only is this entertaining, but it's also educational, and it would make the perfect nighttime read for young and old alike. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This is a great book to use for a bedtime story, or just to learn some interesting facts about the sleep habits of various animals. Did you know that some animals can get enough sleep by taking one minute naps throughout the day? Did you know that some animals only let half of their brain sleep at a time? I loved reading how otters hold hands while they sleep. All this and more are told through a variety of fun poems, beautiful illustrations and a smattering of facts. This would be a great book for a family library, but would also make a great teaching text for primary classrooms. Working on a unit on poetry, this could be used as well to show how poetry can be used to teach as well as entertain. My grandson enjoyed learning about the various animals, and this will be one I get him for Christmas.

This little poetry collection has a bit of everything: whimsical illustrations, gently rhyming verse, and informative text about the different types of sleep in the animal kingdom. It's just right for bedtime reading with preschoolers through 3rd graders, and would make a good addition to a library's juvenile poetry collection. My only quibble is that the poems tend to restate facts from the prose paragraph fairly straightforwardly, where I was expecting more descriptive, figurative language. Standouts among the poems include the one about the sperm whales and the songbird poem which gives the book its (lovely) title.

I love this book. It has stunning art, well written poetry, and all kinds of information about all kinds of animals. We learned so many interesting little facts about why animals sleep the way they do, and the poems are wonderful. Love, love, love. I may buy a copy for our home library.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

This book is Incredible! I loved the poems, and the illustrations are vibrant and cute. I learned a lot of interesting facts about animals and their sleeping habits! I cant wait to suggest this title for story time at work!

Really nice poems and imagery of different animals. Some quick information about the animal before the poem which is cool.

Beautiful poetry...definitely a worthwhile read. Loved the beauty and imagery. Perfect for adults and children.

Beautiful book of poetry for any wild animal or nature lover. Was especially excited to see the pages on the snail :) Lovely artwork and a pleasant read for young or old.

A Songbird Dreams of Singing by Kate Hosford, 40 pages. PICTURE BOOK, POETRY
Running Press Kids (Perseus Books), 2019. $20.
Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: EL - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Did you know that some animals can get enough sleep by taking one minute naps throughout the day? Did you know that some animals only let half of their brain sleep at a time? Hosford teaches readers the odd sleeping habits of several different animals, and then reiterates the information through a rhyming poem -- or two.
Both the factual paragraphs that teach the different sleeping habits of animals and the poems are fun to read, and I like that Hosford made learning fun in this book. The book is also beautifully illustrated, a good combination of appealing pictures and words for a visual smorgasbord.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

This was definitely cute to read to a child at bedtime. Honestly at 22 years old I found it soothing to read late at night. The illustrations would definitely keep a child’s attention and I loved the poetry aspect and the little bits of information about animals. This was not as nonfiction based but I did enjoy the fun sections about each animal a poem was about.

This was a refreshing read. The poems are so cute and well done that I couldn't stop reading. Also, it is very informative and the illustrations, oh my goodness. This is such a cute book!

I think if I were to buy a physical copy of this book that I would have enjoyed it very much. The kindle copy I received was out of order and had pictures chopped in half, but despite that I can still tell that the book is lovely. I love how informative it is while also having lovely poems and adorable illustrations. I learned many new things from this book and think it would make a wonderful addition to our home library.

Hmmm… A pleasant enough read, but not one I would call essential. It's nice to get a book for young audiences just concentrating on animals asleep, such as flamingos sleeping with one leg tucked up for warmth, one leg only as support – and possibly half a brain wide awake, or the snail that a museum mounted as an exhibit when it was still alive, so long it had been dozing. But when that information is repeated in poems, which can get quite repetitive as well in their structure, you feel this book is a spread of bird feathers, puffed up hugely. It looks nice, but it contains a lot of just air for the bird's own purpose. It's proof that science and art don't always mix, for obvious reasons. I'm glad I learnt some things here, but could take or leave the poems.

Oh, my heart! This book was so cute and just made my heart happy! The illustrations are beautiful and allows children (or adults) to soak up the information given about each animal, in a fun way.