Before I Wake Up

PreS-Gr 1—An imaginative journey through the hours of sleep. This picture book's rhyming text and abstract collage illustrations animate the narrator's dreams. Through rich, dark colors laced with light and shadows, the round moon carries the child's bed like a hot-air balloon down to where a lion—a larger, less rumpled version of the toy seen by the bed—waits. The two set off: "Together we fly/with arms stretched out wide/over the seas/and leave our worries behind." In each ethereal spread, the visuals hold the promise of adventure—sometimes unsettling, sometimes exciting—but the narrator feels confident with the lion there. In a boat, they weather a storm, the sea, and wind. After swimming in the ocean, they meet many other enthusiastic wild animals in the wilderness. The design and pacing of the illustrations stand out more than the text, capturing the spirit of a dream world. Single pages and spreads hold many details to discover. The background colors slowly lighten to reflect time passing, and soon the two must hurry toward the morning. "And when the day dawns,/I stand close to my friend. /'Goodbye for now!'/Night has come to an end." The bed returns to pick up the child. It still hangs from the moon, which is hardly visible in the yellow background, indicating the bright light of day.