The Sleepwalkers
Written and Illustrated by Viviane Schwarz
A unique graphic novel for the younger set. If you are plagued by nightmares, write a letter, put it under your pillow and help will come. Three fluffy sheep will rescue the sleeper from their dream and turn it into something the dreamer can handle, maybe even enjoy. A little girl dreams about lots and lots of mice, but she is rescued by the sheep and taken to a safe house. They give her an inflatable catamaran to float over the sea of mice and send her home. Yet, the sheep are getting old and these nightly adventures are taking their toll. They decide to train the next generation of rescuers. The first new rescuer is concocted out of a well-loved quilt into a plump, rather timid bear named Bonifacius or Bonno for short. The sheep take Bonno out the very next night for his rescue-in-training. This time the dream is a falling one. They land on a plane that looks like a pterodactyl that the dreamer learns to fly. The next day, the sheep make a sock monkey to be his teammate. Bonno is sure that Amali the sock monkey is a better rescuer because she seems to do everything right. Next, they conjure up their final rescue helper, Sophia, a crow with a writing quill for a head. Just in time because they have someone with a Naked in Public dream. They all get clothes to wear and Bonno adopts his signature costume, a Mexican wrestler’s mask. Through all of these challenges, the new team learns to solve the scary dreams with their own inimitable style.
Young readers want to jump on the graphic novel bandwagon like their older peers but often the stories are not appropriate for them. This one is written with them in mind concerning a struggle many of them face: bad dreams. The characters grow and mature as they gain the confidence required to do their “job”, as well as helping the dreamers solve their sleep problems. The graphic novel format is really difficult to read aloud unless you do it one-on-one. This has a fairly easy reading level, so a third grader could read this to a younger reader such as a Reading Buddy and both would have the time to examine each frame.
TITLE: The Sleepwalkers- AUTHOR and ILLUSTRATOR: Viviane Schwarz
- PUBLISHER: Candlewick, 2013
- REVIEWER: Risa Brown
- EDITION: Paperback, 94 p.
- ISBN: 978-0-7636-6230-1
- GENRE: Graphic novel, fantasy
- LEXILE: 350GN
