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Alexis Deacon is Back

    If you remember the book Slow Loris, it would be just as much for the illustrations as the text. While You Are Sleeping is not the book of the romantic film (with a similar name) but it is appealing to the romantic vision of a child and her stuffed toys.
    I always love having mini sleepover guests because they all say that they didn't sleep a wink. Believe me, I am not putting peas under their mattresses but rather holding back pouring the tequila in their milk. But the reason those little slumbers say that, I think, is because sleeping is one of the obvious manifestations of children's mortality. And as we know, most children are planning to live forever, sleep is reminding them that ultimately they will lose the battle.
    If the illustrations weren't so delicious, this book would not grabbed me as much. But they are. A wonderfully vivid pastel pallet, highlights Deacon's accomplished pencil. The sock monkey is my personal favourite. The storyline has a fascination for children. What goes on while they are sleeping, appeals to them. Imagining that their animals anthropomorphise at night is right up their alley. I think this book is perfect for 5-7 year olds who seem to grapple with the more sophisticated aspects of sleep.

Bedtime

The Nodland Express by Anna Clarke illustrated by Martin Rowson Macmillan Children's Books

ages: ?

buy from: Amazon UK

What do parents mean when they tell their children at bedtime to go "off to the Land of Nod"? Isaac and Maude, a young brother and sister, find out the answer in this wonderfully imaginative and picturesque book. They take a railway journey which culminates at the Nodland Central station in a good night's sleep at the luxurious station hotel, where they are escorted with sagging eyelids and lion-sized yawns to a hotel room that looks very much like their own bedroom by a kindly manager with a striking resemblance to their mother.

The two children share their railway carriage with a menagerie of alarming-looking characters: a frog, a witch, a wolf, a walrus and a moose. As the journey progresses, a succession of old-fashioned but gentle officials pass through the carriage, clipping tickets, inspecting baggage for customs purposes, and checking passports. One by one, the children's threatening fellow-passengers are forced to leave, symbolizing the route to an undisturbed night's sleep.

Like a child's own imagination, the story gives equal weight to reality and fantasy. The frog smokes cigarettes through a long holder, the wrinkled witch proffers a sandwich full of wriggling worms, and the wolf carries a carpet-bag full of nightmares. The landscape seen through the train windows is full of flying pigs, dinosaurs and dragons. Yet the officials - reminiscent of the grown-ups in Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang - use challenging language: luggage and passports are 'inspected', bags are 'impounded', and creatures are made to 'disembark'. So compelling are Rowson's cartoons of the bureaucrats that even an adult is a little relieved to find that the children's paperwork is in order.

The story gives full weight to the range of emotions through which young children pass on their way to bed. They are excited at first and then worried by the other passengers, mesmerised by the various turns of events, impatient to arrive, and finally happy at their destination. Clarke recognizes children's need to banish haunting thoughts and to feel safe and secure before they close their eyes to sleep. Yet she does not spoonfeed. The story leaves some questions unanswered, and some ideas still to be worked out.

Details are delightful. Animals wear battered top-hats and overcoats. An emergency case contains a toothbrush and toothpaste behind its glass panel. The train platform at the terminus is floored with mattresses. Nodland's exports -baskets of teddies and bedtime stories - are carried by elephants. The Station Manager comes equipped with hot water bottles, kids' drinking cups, and a battered edition of Mother Goose. At the terminus, signs show the way to the Tucking-up Office and the Glass of Water Office. The sweets in the buffet car are mouth-watering, and the toad's ticket - invalid, because it is meant only for afternoon snoozes - is crumpled and chewed.

While many children's book authors fall into the trap of making jokes that are only comprehensible to an adult reader, The Nodland Express's humour remains accessible to children. This is no more than one would expect from an author who appreciates the wonder that railway stations and trains hold for the youngest children. Rowson has exploited this to the full, with an enormous bright green train, towering ceilings, a large clock and what looks like a painfully loud whistle.