Cave of Snores - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 3 Father's loud snores keep all the other shepherds awake and irritated during the night. So they hire a wizard to stop his snoring. Their success is also their downfall, when, without the snoring to scare away the wolves and thieves, their flock dwindles. The shepherds beg father to commence snoring, but the wizard's curse is too powerful. So it is up to his son to find the Cave of Snores and acquire the snoring gift. Haseley's prose is nearly poetic in parts, and it properly captures the tall-tale boastfullness of Arabian folklore. But the already weak plot falters even more inside the Cave of Snores where nothing happensthe boy's cries turn into snores and eventually into a happy ending. Beddows' black-and-white illustrations are also uneven. The humorous, yet well defined faces, clothing, and tent interiors are well-drawn and distinctively Arabic in nature, but the animals are so awkwardly drawn that it's hard to tell the sheep from the wolves. A curious, but uncompelling book.Karen K. Radtke, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this shrewd and diverting story of foolery and mystery, a boy's initiation into snoring takes place in the empty, dark spaces of the Cave of Snores, a place his father had once tried to explain to him. But, as soon as his father began the tale, he stretched, yawned and dropped off to sleep. Now that his father snores no longer, the boy sees what danger hovers around his campsite. The moon is down, and the wolves are circling the sheep; Kabul the wizard and his band of robbers are closing in. What can a boy do to save his camp? He goes to sleep. His "snores," like his father's before him, drive the wolves away and bewitch the bandits. Readers are smoothly hoodwinked into following the path of the narrator in his nightmare; amnesiacs and snorers' victims may do well to heed the suggestion to "stuff their ears with wool." Beddows's nocturnal world of bogeys, wolves and night watchers is breathlessly captivating; black-and-white pictures perfectly depict the dark abyss of the dream world. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.