Apart from being simply the cutest sheep on the block, ewan Deluxe makes a perfect baby or toddler gift! The muted colouring in the illustrations add to the idea that this is a bedtime story and one he would listen to again and again. I believe the book did a great job of connecting the idea of counting sheep for sleep and illustrating the concept. There are three buttons to turn the light on and off, a button to change the sound (you can choose from the different options and then press the big button to activate your choice) and a volume control button that can be turned to a loud or quiet setting. Plays 4 ‘pink noise’ soothing sounds: vacuum cleaner, rainfall, harp melody and a recording of the womb.

He tries everything he can think of to avoid getting to sleep, but his crafty mother anticipates all possible needs: glass of water, extra blanket, cooler sleep shirt, snack, and more. It is designed to mimic the womb with a soft pink glow and four calming ‘pink noise’ sounds (rainfall and heartbeat, womb sounds and heartbeat, vacuum cleaner and heartbeat, and harp melody and heartbeat) each of which will play for 20 minutes at a time.

To activate the MoonMode smartCRY sensor you press and hold the big button for three seconds and listen for a single beep to hear it turn on. His heartbeat pink noise sounds and warm pink glow re-create the familiar womb environment, which of course makes ewan an essential part of the daily routine for any newborn! We asked parent reviewer Gina Osen to put the Ewan Deluxe Baby Shushing Sleep Sheep to the test with Nathan, four months. It’s Forest of Reading time again, which means that as Kait reads the picture books in the running at school, we also read along at home.

Ewan Deluxe offers five different sounds: a vacuum cleaner and heartbeat sound, a rainfall and heartbeat sound, a harp melody and heartbeat sound, a womb and heartbeat sound, and a shush and heartbeat sound so you can find the perfect noise to make your baby sleepy. Our baby is not bad at getting herself off to sleep and definitely seemed more soothed by having Ewan next to her. To turn it off, press and hold for another three seconds and three beeps will indicate it’s no longer on. She then slept for longer and more deeply than she normally does during the day; at night, it was the same and she didn’t do her usual midnight wake-up when we were using Ewan on the first night. Finally mom has had enough of his dawdling and stalling and she advises him to try counting sleep as that is a magic strategy that will work.

I think seeing the young boy facing the same arguments his parents had faced with him can help children see themselves in the story and hopefully empathize with the adults that might normally give a hard time.