Chester Raccoon and the Almost Perfect Sleepover

“Are we almost there?” Chester Raccoon asked his mother.

Chester is excited about going to his very first sleepover. After his mother drops him off at Pepper Opossum’s house with a Kissing Hand in his palm, Chester and his animal friends have a long day of playing games and eating snacks. But when the animals decide to bed down, Chester can’t go to sleep.

While his Kissing Hand has kept him from getting scared, he isn’t in his own bedroom, and he misses his family. When Chester returns home, Mrs. Raccoon welcomes her little cub and reassures him that his home is always there when he needs it.

Young readers will enjoy reading about the party fun and take comfort when Chester finds himself in a situation they can relate to.

Audrey Penn takes her one-woman educational program, the Writing Penn, into schools, libraries, and children’s hospitals where she shapes and refines her story ideas in partnership with kids. She is also highly sought after as a conference keynote speaker by groups of teachers and other professionals who work with children.

Author Website

An award-winning illustrator, Barbara Leonard Gibson was a freelance artist in the Baltimore-Washington area for twenty-five years. Originally from New York, and with a degree in Fine Art and Design from Carnegie Mellon University, she worked in many areas including historical illustration, children’s books, and magazines, cartooning, portraiture, wildlife illustration, natural sciences, advertising, fantasy, and science fiction.

“A title that offers reassurance to young ones eager to attend their first sleepover.”
—School Library Journal

“Present[s] a familiar childhood dilemma without shaming.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A resolution that should reassure timid readers who aren’t always as brave or independent as they would like to be.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Enthusiastically recommended for family, preschool, elementary school, and community library children’s picture book collections.”
—Midwest Book Review