A VOICE FOR INDEPENDENT AUTHORS

A Review of: Sweet Dreams And Furry Schemes

by James Herring and Tori Hall Sudduth

This is a bedtime story par excellence. In fact, it’s hard to imagine any child listening to a soothing parental voice reading Sweet Dreams And Furry Schemes not drifting off to sleep quickly upon completion. Perhaps this is the intent behind James Herring and Tori Hall Sudduth’s remarkable creation. To motivate a restless child toward sleep’s embrace. If so, the illustrations used to guide them there are equally entrancing, enthralling, and … well, embracing. Perhaps the fact they glow like moonlight deepens the effect of drifting dreamward, or maybe it’s just watching the eyes of all those forest animals begin to droop that does it. In any case, one yawns and yearns to drift away on the deep soothingness provided by this wonderful story. Yes, even the adults.

A discerning eye and an understanding heart are required to combine effective elements into a children’s book. Children look and listen as if any written-down reality is truer than their own. They don’t know. They just attentively observe and become fully engaged. Thus, the challenge for the author(s) whose own reality is once or twice removed is to recreate an authentic childhood realm. Kudos to James Herring and Tori Hall Sudduth for succeeding…