Ramona is having her best friend Gracie over to stay the night. It’s their first ever sleepover and she wants to make a den, read stories, dance like a wild thing, stay up all night, and have a midnight feast. It’ll be the BEST SLEEPOVER IN HISTORY!
But nothing quite goes to plan. Will Gracie, Ramona, and her little sister Ruby be able to solve their problems and still be friends in the morning?
Sophie Dahl is an internationally bestselling novelist, cookery writer and columnist.
The Worst Sleepover in the World builds on the success of Dahl’s first children’s book, Madame Badobedah, which was selected as a Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Year.
This is a fabulous picture book that highlights the realities of sleepovers and navigating new friendships. The Worst Sleepover in the World transported me back to my own childhood sleepovers. I remember being in both Ramona and Gracie’s shoes of host and guest respectively.
Luciano Lozano’s vibrant illustrations exhibit the different scenarios and phases of a sleepover: the planning, the good, and the ugly. Lozano’s illustrations combined with Dahl’s storytelling perfectly captures the mixed feelings kids can have about sleepovers.
Ramona and Ruby have a familiar rush of excitement before the sleepover, where you make every list and plan to condense a year’s worth of fun into one night. But also like Ramona and Ruby, most children can relate to the discomfort of sleepovers: being in an unfamiliar place, spending time away from loved ones, and having to adapt to each other’s habits and routines. It can be unsettling, but Ramona and Ruby’s mum is the sounding board who turns the ‘worst sleepover in the world’ into a happy memory for all participants.
The Worst Sleepover in the World cleverly explores the joys, pains, and plights of first friendships, in a way both children and parents will relate to. Perfect for a bedtime read, I recommend it for readers aged 4+.
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