While You Are Asleep - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 2-- A book that shows children what goes on around a city at night. Charlie the bus driver lets Marsha off to begin her shift at the all-night doughnut shop where two police officers, one a woman, are having coffee as they start their beat. Outside, a cabbie gets gas, while a telephone operator takes an emergency call about a woman having a baby. The officers hear the call, too, and drive her to the hospital. Dr. Kim is on duty at the hospital, as it Nurse Kathy. Marsha goes home from the donut shop, and the new mom and baby go to sleep. The pointillistic paintings suit the evening and nighttime colors, but the faces don't look reassuring to kids who may read this as a bedtime story. The settings all appear to be from an earlier time in terms of car styles, architecture, and gas-pump design, as if to make it all look homier than cities often look today. But if this is a small town, it's unlikely that it would have so many 24-hour services. Also, the text is set directly on the illustrations, making some pages difficult to read. This first effort by both author and illustrator shows promise, but many details need refinement.
-Dorcas Hand, Annunciation Orthodox School, Houston, TX
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It's night, but many people are working: Marsha, who works in an all-night doughnut shop; Donald, a gas station attendant; and all the people who help get Donald's wife to the hospital to have a baby--telephone operator, policeman, taxi driver. The story is simple but nicely shaped to convey its image of a busy, mysterious though essentially ordinary time. In illustrations that nicely capture the contrast between the quiet, dimly-lit streets and the patches of lively activity, Hepworth adds appealing, carefully selected detail. Her people, like Susan Jeschke's, tend to be as almost aggressively plain, but they also have a nice warmth and humanity. Good debuts for both author and illustrator. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.