It's Only Stanley
I love the illustrations, the rhythm and the repetitiveness in this book. Stanley is the Wimbledon’s dog and one night the parents are waken to find him howling at the moon and Walter replies, “I don’t recognize the tune.” Back in bed sleeping, one-by-one, in their striped pajamas, the children come into their parent’s room complaining about a noise, a smell or a sound that they hear while sleeping. This causes their father to get up and investigate. Coming back to the bedroom, their father says, “It’s only Stanley” and he proceeds to tell them what Stanley had fixed in the house. The children continue to arrive all night, never leaving and the bed starts to get crowded as “The Wimbledons were sleeping.” Each child telling the parents why they can’t sleep, for which their father says, “That’s very odd,” and he also mentions something about the time. Stanley looks like a beagle to be and he’s not a neat handy man by all means and the family’s poor cat, he gets into the action too. By the end of the night, the family is exhausted and they just want some sleep. Stanley, on the other hand, has something else planned for the family.
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