Stop Snoring, Dad!
Jackie Myers
Halo Publishing International (2025)
ISBN: 978-1637658109
Reviewed by Elizabeth Upshur for Reader Views (10/2025)
Jackie Myers’ picture book Stop Snoring, Dad! is a comedic take on bedtime, with great illustrations, fantastic word choices, and a satisfying ending that teaches kids about taking ownership of their own sleep habits.
The story opens with our main character, Louie, a sweet little red-headed boy who is ready to go to bed. His room is nice and neat, his pajamas are on, his aquarium light provides just enough light to keep his room safe and secure from monsters without keeping him up, and his pet kitten and pet dog are up on his blanket. Louie is snuggled in his bed, asleep, but something wakes him up from his peaceful slumber. There’s an unexpected noise that just won’t let him sleep. It’s his dad! Snoring like a noisy old train huffing and puffing up a mountain!
This is where Louie’s troubles begin. With his father’s window shaking snores keeping him, his kitten, and his dog up, he knows that he needs to fix this so that they can all get some much-needed sleep. Louie tries a variety of remedies that he hopes will fix his dad’s snoring. First, he tries garlic, but it turns out that only works against vampires! Then he tries stuffing tissues in his dad’s nose…but he snorts them out, pew pew!
Louie gets desperate and tries even more inventive things, like a nice warm electric blanket, minty fresh tea bags, tickling, anything! His poor pets have tried their best to be helpful, but even they are falling asleep on the job!
And then, just as it begins to get truly late, Louie has a light-bulb moment on how to get back to sleep. Louie leaves his dad, returns to his room, tucks himself in bed, and stuffs cotton balls in his own ears (and his pet’s ears). Finally, no more noise! Soon, all three of them are fast asleep, and Dad, we assume, continues with his snoring.
The illustrations by Jack Foster are cute and help frame the story nicely. Readers will sympathize with poor Louie’s dad—who is possibly sleeping off allergy medicine—and the way the narrative is flipped, where it is the child, Louie, who is trying his best to get back to sleep. The lesson here is that while you might not be able to change other people or their sleep, with a little bit of ingenuity, you can change your mindset, stuff cotton balls in your ears, and both of you can get a good night’s rest. Stop Snoring, Dad! by Jackie Myers is an excellent read that I can’t wait to share with my nephew!