The Yawns Are Coming! by Christopher Eliopoulos

Genre: Picture book Age group: 4-9 years old

Summary: A young boy and his best friend Noodle must stay up late to complete their epic to-do list for their sleepover. But will they find themselves under siege by the yawns, dozes and snoozes, will they be able to prevail to continue their epic sleepover? Perusing around the library I noticed the title and my interest was peaked. The title alone reminded me of another particular picture book titled I Dare You Not To Yawn by Helene Boudreau. Upon finding the book placed on the Texas 2x2 list I knew it was a must read to be added to my ever growing reading list.

Review:

As previously stated when I first saw the title of this book I immediately thought of I Dare You Not to Yawn by Helene Boudreau. The Yawns Are Coming! takes us on another fun ride of children attempting to avoid their nap or bedtime. One thing I enjoyed was the personification of the yawns, dozes and snoozes as it adds an adventure aspect to the story. Just think if the yawns were just regular yawns. It would not make for an engaging and fun story which Eliopoulos is going for here. He is bringing a childlike imagination to the story that is adding action and adventure to what one would consider the mundane activity of children fighting their bedtime.

Eliopoulos chose a comic-like, simple style of illustration. Nothing is heavily dosed in detail with simple semi-bold lines outlining the characters and their foes. He also places a greater focus on the characters and their foes by having minimal to no backgrounds on every page. In following this pattern my eyes are drawn to the characters and their expressions after the words on the page. Speaking of words, I greatly enjoyed the comic style fonts that were placed on certain words to create emphasis and show their importance to the story.

Finally, I enjoyed the characters: our dynamic duo of unnamed protagonist and Noodles. It was great to see a child of color as the protagonist of this story. Although I wish he could have been given a name like his counterpart, Noodles. A name can establish a character in one’s mind even if we are with them for a short period of time.

Eliopoulos, C. (2020). The Yawns are Coming!. Dial Books for Young Readers.