The artwork was flat; the story was okay.

This is an awesome kids book. So many lessons are taught. Being positive, helping, being genuinely kind and helpful without trying to get something in return, karma, not letting your situation define you, thinking through problems and finding solutions, and others. This "shark" goes around from creature to creature helping them in whatever situation they are in and find a solution. She is kind and helpful. She does so out of the goodness of her heart and at last someone helps her and she finds great comfort in it. I am amazed so much is contained in this children's book. Well done Tamia!!

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

This book was cute, but there didn't seem to be any resolution for Amelia's sleeping problem. However, the journey she goes through sees her as a friend to all creatures, even those that sharks would typically be a predator for. This is a nice reflection of friendship as an organic process. The art style isn't my favorite, and there isn't a great "plot," but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Cute illustrations, and I like that the (not) sleepy shark is a girl. A shark named Amelia! I felt like there were way too many named characters for such a short and simple children's book. Amelia meets many other ocean creatures, including (but not limited to) a jellyfish, a crab, a seal, a whale... and they ALL have names. I really don't need to know that the turtle's name is Ada. I feel like the story might make more sense to the audience if it was just Amelia (or the shark) saw a turtle who was swimming with a frown, rather than "Ada, who was swimming with a frown."

Loved the last page that talks about all the creatures resting their bodies and mind so they can wake up full of energy in the morning "because they had recharged and rested." We always tell my 3 year old that he needs to go to sleep and "recharge his batteries!"

2.5 Stars

I read this with my friend's daughter. I struggled with enjoying this book (or seeing the point), but she liked it a little more.

Her two favorite part was when the whale explained she slept upside down.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to download, read and review this cute book.

"Amelia the shark is tired but she's not ready to sleep. In this fun bedtime book, a silly shark explores the way other sea animals get ready for bed until she's finally ready to say goodnight".

It is brilliant in the way she interacts with all the animals in the sea. As a parent/nanny i am SO familiar with all the excuses of "I'm thirsty, I'm hot, I'm scared of bad dreams" that children often come up with when it is time to go to sleep. If you've having trouble getting your child off to sleep, then this would be a brilliant book to help you deal with it.

The illustrations are lovely and the length just right for bedtime.

Hm, another children's book to land firmly in the "just OK" area. A shark can't sleep and swims around to find, it seems, none of her friends can sleep either. She helps them each by asking why they can't sleep and then making suggestions to fix their sleeping issues.

As you can imagine, it gets very repetitive, and sometimes the solutions don't make total sense, like the author just needed another reason a fish couldn't sleep. For instance, the seahorse who dreams of rocks falling on her tail. Amelia, the shark, suggests she sleeps away from rocks that could fall on her, but the fear isn't because rocks have fallen on her, they're because she dreamed that they did. So how does where she sleeps in the real world make a difference? Another one was that the seal's brother wouldn't stop swimming around her. So Amelia suggests she snuggle with her brother. The seal promptly swims away in search of her brother. If he wouldn't stop swimming around her, where was he at that moment? Sounds like she was able to ditch him and should have been able to sleep.

Only one other animal suggests a way for Amelia to find sleep, which doesn't work, but promptly afterwards she does feel sleepy and goes to bed with no explanation as to why, yet every other animal had a reason why they couldn't sleep.

The book really isn't terrible. The pictures are decent and the writing flows alright. There's just nothing spectacular here. Nothing is really learned and the story isn't all that clever. I will say on the positive side, I like that it's not just about a shark but a female shark. You don't often see books based on female sharks.

The (Not) Sleepy Shark is a cute bedtime story for little kiddies (👶🏽). It tells the story of Amelia the shark (🦈) who is unable to sleep one night and is bored so she meets up with some of her friends and finds out why they're not sleeping either. We meet May the seahorse (🌊 🐴), a clownfish called Jester (🤡 🐟), Ada the turtle (🐢), Hanna the crab (🦀), Sasha the seal (🌊L), a large school of fish (🐟🐠🐟🐠), Olivia the octopus (🐙) and Lucy the whale (🐳).

Each friend Amelia meets has a reason they can't fall asleep (except Lucy who's ready for bed), mirroring the multitude of reasons why kidlets will tell their parents why they can't sleep yet ... worries about bad dreams, wanting to tell jokes, needing a drink, too cold, too hot, annoyed by someone, hungry, and wanting to play. I personally excelled at the needing a drink trick. The payoff for going to sleep now is that tomorrow you'll be rested and will wake up with plenty of energy.

I was disappointed that we never got to find out Amelia's reason for not being able to sleep. Whether it had something to do with the fact that there were no parents in sight during the entire book could've had something to do with it. Maybe Amelia was wanting to hang out with each of her friends because she was scared of having to go back to her cave all by herself?

I've loved sharks ever since I got over the trauma of watching Jaws for the first time at about 6 years old. You want a reason to not be able to sleep, kids? Just watch Jaws as a child with an overactive imagination. It's one of my favourite movies now though. Go figure!!

So with my shark obsession in tow I decided I had to read this book. It was cute and I enjoyed it but felt like there was something lacking. I've pondered this for a few days now and I think my lack of connection to this book is because of the illustrations. Don't get me wrong; they are nice pictures. It's just none of the animals seemed to have personalities or individual little character traits that shone through.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and Xist Publishing for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

A great and gentle book for young learners that would be ideal for bedtime.

This book is so cute. The shark can’t sleep and along the way finds friends who also can’t sleep. Each animal has a reason they can’t sleep like too cold, too hot, thirsty, etc. The shark goes about helping others and trying to sleep herself. This would be a perfect bedtime story.

This story is a loveable ocean adventure where Ameila, a shark, is having trouble falling asleep. Other fish in the ocean are having the same problem, each with their own reason. Children would easily relate to this story and fall in love with Amerlia the shark and will want to fall asleep just like her. The artwork is beautiful and really makes the story come to life for the readers.

This book concerns Amelia the shark who is tired, but not quite ready to sleep. It looks at all the excuses she comes up with as she interacts with other creatures in the ocean; I'm thirsty, I'm hot, I'm scared of bad dreams - all of the excuses that children often come up with have been countered here with helpful responses from the sea creatures. If you've having trouble getting your child off to sleep, then this would be a brilliant book to ease them into bed time. The text is nice and clear and I enjoyed the illustrations, however the pages seemed more dominated by the text than the images.

The illustrations are pleasing and well done. The plot? A (friendly in this case) shark unable to fall asleep for the evening encounters his sea creature friends (who might be natural enemies in real life): turtle, clownfish, a school of fish, a whale, a crab, and more. All give advice about how to get sleepy. A book, perhaps, for toddlers who have an aversion to bedtime.

*thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review *

2.5 stars.
Not sure how i really feel about this one. On one hand, I did like the idea of it, but I felt like it didnt really work. Felt like something was missing from it at the beginning. I think I might need to re-read this a few more times maybe. While the description sounded really good, I just cant see myself reading this to little kids. It wasnt a bad book, I can see why people would like it. Plus having a book about not being able to sleep for kids is a really good idea and this definally had potential, it just didnt quite get there for me. I do really like the cover though and there was the positive message about how if you dont get to sleep, you will be too tired to play with your friends the next day and you will miss out. Well thats what I got from it anyway.