It was while you were sleeping...

Have you ever wondered what happens when you sleep? When you go to sleep at night, do you dream? Or do other things happen…

Three of the Cybils fiction picture book nominations tell about the things that happen when all are asleep.

Angels Watching Over Me by Julia Durango and illustrated by Elisa Kleven (Simon and Schuster, 2007) is a book I reviewed earlier, but it really fits in this category. Even though it is based on a song that says “all night, all day angels watching over me” it emphasizes the guardian angels that watch over the child no matter where he goes. The nighttime scenes are especially beautiful.

Perhaps you wake up in the morning with wild hair, tangled hair, a mess of hair. Perhaps it’s not angels that are watching over you, but a pesky Knot Fairy that visits you each night. In The Knot Fairy by Bobbie Hinman and illustrated by Kristi Bridgeman (Best Fairy Books, 2007), it’s the Knot Fairy’s job to go from house to house and check off her list of boys and girls that she has visited. When she arrives, in the dead of night, she ties each child’s hair in little bitty knots. So if you wake up in the morning and your head is a tangled mess, chances are the Knot Fairy has paid a visit.

If it’s nightmares you have, perhaps you need a visit from Engelbert Sneem and His Dream Vacuum Machine, written and illustrated by Mr. Daniel Postgate (North South, 2007). Engelbert Sneem starts off his career as a dream stealer. He sneaks into bedrooms in the middle of the night and sucks the dreams right out of children’s heads. This part of the book is quite sinister and spooky. Engelbert puts all of the dreams in jugs that he stores in his Dungeon of Dreams. Soon he realizes that he has become a NIGHTMARE! He turns from his bad ways and uses his vacuum for good. He only takes away nightmares from little children.

So, who visits you at night while you are sleeping?