[2][3][4][5][6] The New York Times stated the book was “A hilarious woolly insomniac…adorably funny…[A] runaway hit.”[4] Kirkus Reviews stated "Scotton makes a stylish debut with this tale of a sleepless sheep—depicted as a blocky, pop-eyed, very soft-looking woolly with a skinny striped nightcap of unusual length—trying everything, from stripping down to his spotted shorts to counting all six hundred million billion and ten stars, twice, in an effort to doze off.

.Russell doesn’t have quite the big personality of Ian Falconer’s Olivia, but more sophisticated fans of the precocious piglet will find in this art the same sort of daffy urbanity.

"[5] Publishers Weekly stated "Russell, a sheep longing for shuteye, is on the case in this sweet-natured picture book.

British native Scotton's children's book debut blends silly and warm into the kind of package that appeals to a broad age range.

His stylized sheep—all fleecy white fluff atop matchstick-thin legs, with ping-pong-ball eyes—are simultaneously endearing and comic against a dark night-sky background.