Does the early bird really catch the worm, or end up healthy, wealthy, and wise? Can some people really exist on just a few hours' sleep a night? Does everybody dream? Do fish dream? How did people cope before alarm clocks and caffeine? And is anybody getting enough sleep? Even though we will devote a third of our lives to sleep, we still know remarkably little about its origins and purpose. Paul Martin's Counting Sheep answers these questions and more in this illuminating work of popular science. Even the wonders of yawning, the perils of sleepwalking, and the strange ubiquity of nocturnal erections are explained in full. To sleep, to dream: Counting Sheep reflects the centrality of these activities to our lives and can help readers respect, understand, and extract more pleasure from that delicious time when they're lost to the world.

One cold dark night when Sam can't sleep, her mum suggests that she counts some sheep. But how can she count them when one of the sheep can't jump over the fence? Join Sam and her flock in this frolicking, rhyming farmyard tale as they try to help little Sheep find a way over the fence.

Counting sheep is supposed to help you sleep—but a room full of yaks, alpacas, and llamas would keep anyone awake in this counting book with a comical twist. Winner of the Mathical Book Prize! A glass of warm milk, reading, working on her knitting—nothing can help Clarissa get to sleep. When even counting sheep doesn't help her doze off, she tried pairs of alpacas instead. Two, four, six . . . then llamas by fives . . . then yaks by tens! But no one could sleep with a room full of bouncing, bleating, shedding animals. Determined to unravel her problem so she can get some sleep, Clarissa counts back down until she's all alone, and she can finally get some rest. Introducing addition and subtraction by ones, twos, fives, and tens, Sheep Won't Sleep is part bedtime story, part math practice— and the hilarious illustrations of spotted, striped, and plaid animals are sure to appeal to imaginative readers of all ages. A perfect-- and fun!-- way to introduce and reinforce counting in groups, this is sure to be a study- and bedtime favorite!

This unusual anthology demonstrates the range of possibilities in nature writing with contributions from Charles Bowden, Julian Hayden, Danny Lopez, Charles Sheldon, Ann Zwinger, and others". Essential reading for naturalists and conservationists. Highly recommended".--Library Journal.

“Late last night I lay in bed and found I couldn’t sleep. So I scrunched my eyes up tightly and counted woolly sheep.” In this amusing bedtime story, a little girl decides she must count sheep in order to fall asleep. Starting at ten, her sheep begin to suffer humorous mishaps as she happily drifts into dreamland. Each number illustrates sheep flying off in different directions, unable to control their skateboards, the slippery floor, or their crazy dance moves. Children will laugh and learn in this combination bedtime and counting book. The sing-songy verse and bright, whimsical illustrations provide a visual counting aid, as well as entertainment in the moments before bedtime. Count the Sheep to Sleep is sure to help children fall asleep to their own leaping sheep, transforming bedtime from a struggle into a fluffy white parade!

Sheep are the thread that runs through the history of the English countryside. Our fortunes were once founded on sheep, and this book tells a story of wool and money and history, of merchants and farmers and shepherds, of English yeomen and how they got their freedom, and above all, of the soil. Sheep have helped define our culture and topography, impacting on everything from accent and idiom, architecture, roads and waterways, to social progression and wealth. With his eye for the idiosyncratic, Philip meets the native breeds that thrive in this country; he tells stories about each breed, meets their shepherds and owners, learns about their past - and confronts the present realities of sheep farming. Along the way, Philip meets the people of the countryside and their many professions: the mole-catchers, the stick-makers, the tobacco-twisters and clog-wrights. He explores this artisan heritage as he re-discovers the countryside, and finds a lifestyle parallel to modern existence, struggling to remain unchanged - and at its heart, always sheep.

If people count sheep to fall asleep, then... what do sheep count? Flowers, says this beautifully fanciful dream of a book. Sunflowers, roses, geraniums, jasmine. And there's lots of OTHER things you probably don't know about sheep...Sheep have neither pajamas nor pillows nor slippers. They tell bedtime stories about rhinoceroses and airplanes. They ONLY fly when they're sleeping, like butterflies circling the sun. In fact, there are sheep that sparkle in the dark like stars and fireflies. Or are there? Look closer at the light-as-a-laugh paintings by Amanda Mijangos, and you just might start wondering if all those adventurers are children in sheep's clothing!