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Heather Gutierrez is a Mom of two, early childhood education coach, and independent author. She resides in the DC area, and developed her love of children's books after years of teaching in Early Childhood classrooms. Her books are currently available via her website!
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
It’s Hard to Sleep When You’re an Artist is a work of children's fiction by Heather Gutierrez. Lily is an artist. She’s lots of other things, too, including being a five-year-old girl. But what she loves most is to paint pictures – bright, bold, beautiful pictures. So, when Mom tells her it’s bedtime, all she wants to do is stay awake all night and paint more pictures. Mom has a better idea and turns Lily’s murals that decorate her bedroom walls into stories that can brighten her dreamland. She can be anything she wants to be with her pictures. That’s the power behind a creative and imaginative mind.
Heather Gutierrez’s picture book story, It’s Hard to Sleep When You’re an Artist, is all about creativity and imagination. The subtitle is so true – we can make wonderful dreams by ourselves. All we need is a little bit of imagination, and then the dreams take on a magical flair of their own. That’s what little artist Lily discovers as she and her mom explore the many possibilities offered by Lily’s beautiful paintings. She can be a ballerina, a mermaid, and so much more. This simple story is beautifully told with bright, bold, colorful illustrations, much like Lily’s art. It’s a story within a story, a work of art within a work of art. The story will lure young readers into imaginative dreams of their own creation and spark wonderful bedtime memories with a special parent, grandparent, or guardian. Young readers will be attracted to this book by its appearance and learn some of the words as a loved one shares this precious story with them. And, yes, children will readily agree, it is hard to sleep when you're an artist. Why? Because a creative mind never really does sleep.
