Sweet Dreamers

by Isabelle Simler

Overview

A gorgeous bedtime book from an award-winning creator

From the celebrated creator of Plume and The Blue Hour comes another enchanting animal book. Countless cozy animals are settling in for the night, but they all sleep in different ways. A bat dreams upside down, a hedgehog snuggles into a pile of leaves, and a humpback whale spins in its sleep like a ballerina.

With its poetic language and lush illustrations, Sweet Dreamers will dazzle young readers as they drift off to sleep themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467464130
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
File size:	85 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Isabelle Simler is the award-winning author and illustrator of The Blue Hour and Plume (both Eerdmans). Both books were featured in the 2017 Society of Illustrators "The Original Art" Annual Exhibition, and Plume was named a 2017 New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book. Isabelle lives in France. Visit her website at www.isabellesimler.com.
  Isabelle Simler has written and illustrated over twenty children's books. The Blue Hour, Sweet Dreamers, My Wild Cat, Plume, and A Perfect Spot (all Eerdmans) were each featured in the Society of Illustrators "The Original Art" annual exhibition, and Plume was named a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book. Isabelle lives in France. Follow her on Instagram @isabellesimler or visit her website at isabellesimler.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/27/2019

Do animals dream? Whimsically pondering what could be in the minds of a menagerie of sleepers, Simler uses descriptive language to cleverly evoke dreams drawn from animals’ distinguishing characteristics and habitats: “She settles on a rock, mimics a pebble, and sleeps like a stone. The octopus dreams in disguise.” “Tight inside his twisting shell, the snail stretches to the bottom of his bed. His dreams spiral out.” Each slumbering animal receives an illustrated spread accompanied by a brief prose poem. Wordless nighttime landscapes punctuate these reveries, languorously extending the book’s rhythmic pace. Staticky scratched lines of color highlighted with electric orange against deep inky backgrounds offer an energizing contrast to more common depictions of rest, subtly reminding readers that dreaming, too, is an action. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

2020 Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book for Children and Teens

From the Publisher

★ 03/01/2019

K-Gr 3—Lyrical language and stunning, semi-realistic digital artwork strike a serene balance between dreamland and the natural world. Atmospheric spreads and imagery-packed verses depict a variety of sleeping animals in their habitats. "The humpback whale/dreams vertically… Balancing on her head/or the tip of her tail,/this ballerina nosedives/into sleep." Some of the entries lean more toward the whimsical: "Slung like a hammock,/the sloth dreams/of spring-loaded sprinters,/of rockets blasting off,/of pump-action spinning tops./When the stopwatch starts,/our dreaming racer/doesn't move/an inch." Contrasting dusky hues with bright oranges and greens, Simler's handsomely composed images expertly use lines to create texture and depth. Most animals are depicted with both a full-body image and a zoomed-in shot. Wordless double-page renderings of various biomes are interspersed throughout, providing opportunity to discuss species' habitats. A glowing full moon adorns many of the spreads, adding continuity and building toward the final scene, where a child dreams of interacting with these animals "beneath the moon." VERDICT Share this exquisite offering as an introduction to the sleep habits of different animals, an imagination-stirring example for poetry writing, or a soothing bedtime story to inspire sweet dreams.—Joy Fleishhacker, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs

School Library Journal

★ 2019-01-28

A stylized, visually stunning introduction to animals and animal facts that doubles neatly as a bedtime story.

In this French import, slumbering animals, insects, and sea creatures are depicted in highly detailed spreads paired with lyrical free verse. Delicate clusters of lines characterize the digital illustrations, which, dominated by black, resemble scratchboard with a modern twist: Vibrant neon-orange highlights the moonlit details on nearly every page. The visual and verbal pacing excels. Wordless full-bleed landscape endpapers and title pages gently draw readers in, inspiring quiet wonder and appreciation of the natural world before zooming in on the first featured creature: a sloth, asleep in a tree. What follows is an organic, loosely educational exploration of animals' experiences of sleep: In each spread, Simler's text, translated from the original French, cleverly acknowledges fact (the sloth sleeps "slung like a hammock") while entertaining flights of fancy ("the sloth dreams / of spring-loaded sprinters, / of rockets blasting off"). The creatures themselves are easily recognizable; many, refreshingly, are less-common subjects, including a humpback whale, a flamingo, and a wild boar. Every so often, the close-up animal spreads are punctuated by new wordless nighttime landscape spreads over which to linger. In the final spread, an unnamed light-skinned girl slumbers: a cue for readers to do the same. The satisfyingly large trim size, soothing pacing, and imaginative text invite shared (and frequent) reading.

A delight. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews