Franklin Has a Sleepover

Ted McGee is an associate professor of English at St. Jerome’s
College, University of Waterloo.

The 13th book in a popular series, Franklin Has a Sleepover brings the
eponymous little turtle to one of life’s turning points: now able to
“count by twos and tie his shoes ... zip zippers and button buttons
... even sleep alone in his small, dark shell ... Franklin thought he
was ready for a sleepover.” When Bear agrees, promising his parents
“We’ll sleep” and dismissing the possibility of homesickness, he
and Franklin swing into massive preparations. Paulette Bourgeois
captures recognizable features of the experience, and Brenda Clark
enhances this work with images of “Snakes and Ladders,” smiling
slippers, flashlights (an indispensable sleepover tool/toy), and even, I
think, a piece of the larger Franklin industry, a children’s cup with
a little green turtle figure on it. While the story teaches an
incidental lesson on campfire safety, two threads draw it together as a
whole: the room(s) in which the youngsters try to, and finally do,
sleep, and the key character in Bear’s bedtime ritual, his stuffed
bunny.

As in other Franklin books, the illustrations cautiously add a little
beyond what the words establish. The animals are obviously portrayed as
if human. However, their other-ness is suggested by their quaintly
primitive surroundings (epitomized by wooden telephones) and their
animal-ness by one or two culinary details (most notably flies in the
porridge). The pictures, though largely only dutiful, sometimes capture
exactly the various emotions of those engaged in the (mis)adventure of
Franklin’s first sleepover. Recommended.