Outer Space Bedtime Race is a fun, lighthearted bed time story written by Rob Sanders and illustrated by Brian Won. This book not only serves as an excellent bedtime story children will love, but also as an educational tool for parents to teach their children about the solar system.
Our story begins in the bedroom of two small children nearly ready to fall asleep in their Earth-shaped and colored bed. The reader is, then, introduced to the idea that aliens exist in our solar system- at least the one represented in the book- and also are in need of sleep! The entire solar system proceeds to participate in a sleep race of sorts; who can get to bed and fall asleep the fastest? It is implied that the aliens on Mercury are the fastest since they are closest to the sun, though this question is never fully answered. Instead of focusing on who is fastest, the rest of Bedtime Race actually tells of each planet's inhabitants and their bedtime rituals and facts about the actual planets. In the end, all the aliens are asleep, making it the children's turn to do the same. At the back of the book, brief facts about each planet are explained in a fun, interesting way.
As a twenty-two year old college student, I very quickly fell in love with this book and want to make a habit of reading it before bed each night. Needless to say, I would highly recommend this book to any child, although I feel the best age would be about 4-7;just old enough for them to start to appreciate outer space, but still young enough to want their parents reading to them. I would also highly recommend this to college students, who probably need a good bedtime story and warm blanket every now and then. ( )

A book about aliens on every planet in our solar system (including the dwarf planet Pluto) and their bedtimes. It's a very cute book with very colorful illustrations that can be used both at home as a bedtime story and in the classroom as an introduction to a unit on our solar system. ( )

Explosively colorful art will make this title have kid appeal. Just as earthlings need to head off to bed, so do extraterrestrial beings from the rest of the solar system. This fanciful story in rhyme (sometimes a little clunky and often having problems with meter, which makes it a bit hard to read aloud with finesse) introduces youngins' to the planets. Not my favorite, but I daresay that aficionados of all-things-space will like this book. ( )