The typical post-dinner rituals of a family with a small child—washing dishes, bath time, putting on jammies, brushing teeth, etc.—are recounted in a cumulative text about a small boy insisting it’s not yet time to go to sleep. His patient parents run through their routine with gentle suggestions (“It’s getting dark.” “Don’t you look cozy?”). Each time the boy denies the inevitable by insisting, “It is not time for sleeping.” Castillo’s somber ink and watercolor illustrations show the boy gradually winding down, going from bright-eyed alert to heavy-lidded by book’s end. (Ages 2–4)

A charming bedtime story about a child with very specific ideas on the appropriate time for sleeping, now available in a soft padded board book edition.

As the day comes to an end, bedtime draws near. But the little boy in this book is quite sure it is not time for sleeping.

As each piece of his evening routine is completed—helping with the dishes, playing with the dog, getting into pajamas, brushing teeth with Dad, being tucked in by Mom, and listening to a story—he becomes a little more certain: it is definitely not time for sleeping. The question is, when will it be time for sleeping?

A rhythmic, cumulative text and lush twilit scenes come together to create a perfect bedtime book that will be treasured for generations to come.