Tundra Telegram: Books That Deserve a Red Carpet 2: Electric Boogaloo

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we zoom in on a few subjects that have people doing long takes, and filter out some great books that really hit the mark: both blockbusters and cult classics.

As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA labor dispute with major studios and streamers enters its fourth month, the Toronto International Film Festival, which starts this evening and runs until September 17, will look a lot different. There will be no press conferences and fewer actors and writers in town to promote their works. But that doesn’t mean the festival won’t feature a variety of delights for filmgoers.

As we did last year, we’re going to shine the spotlight on a shortlist of highly anticipated films screening at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and recommend a few books that could be just the ticket for you or your young reader. Let’s get rolling!

PICTURE BOOKS

All the film buffs are psyched about South Korean films, so the Gala Presentation of a new action movie from Ryoo Seung-wan, Smugglers, is sure to be a hot ticket. A female-led heist movie and action film about a crew of free divers turned smugglers, the movie features some dazzling underwater action scenes. While Constellation of the Deep by Benjamin Flouw features a underwater fox explorer in pursuit of a rare and valuable plant and some mind-blowing aquatic scenes, no laws are broken in Fox’s sea quest.

One of the most high-profile films at TIFF is Dream Scenario, the surreal new Nicolas Cage movie, directed by Kristoffer Borgli and co-produced by Ari (Midsommar) Aster, about a university professor who suddenly finds celebrity when he starts appearing in nearly everybody’s dreams (!). Frankie, the bear who has trouble getting to sleep, may not appear in others’ dreams in A Bedtime Yarn by Nicola Winstanley and Olivia Chin Mueller, but the waking world nevertheless affects the dream world. When Frankie’s mother gives him some yarn to hold while sleeping, so she can knit a surprise for him, the yarn’s colors enter his sleeping thoughts, affecting the plot and color, and reminding him he’s always connected to loved ones, even in his dreams.

It’s not just narrative films drawing attention at the festival. Stamped from the Beginning is a buzzed-about documentary from filmmaker Roger Ross Williams, based on a book from Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, that takes a deep dive into the full history of anti-Black ideas in a way that grapples with present-day racism. For younger audiences, Antiracist Baby by the very same Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky is what you should read to your kid before watching the film: a picture book that encourages parents and children to uproot the racism in society and ourselves.

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

Awkwafina and Sandra Oh star as sisters Anne and Jenny in Jessica Yu’s comedy Quiz Lady, which has its world premiere at TIFF. When the siblings find out their mother has racked up an impressive gambling debt, there’s only one solution: hit the road and use Anne’s trivia skill to win a television game show. Of course, the film reminded us of the comedic No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen, in which homeless twelve-year-old Felix Knuttson attempts to win on a national quiz show to turn his and his mother’s luck around.

The director of Borat (Larry Charles) will premiere his wild, queer musical-comedy take on The Parent Trap, Dicks: The Musical, as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness program. The film follows a pair of identical twins who conspire to reunite their divorced and disturbed parents (Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally). The kids may not be identical and the plot not as madcap or crude, but Auriane Desombre’s The Sister Split is also a queer, reverse take on The Parent Trap, featuring a pair of soon-to-be-stepsisters who try to break up their parents so they can stay out of the suburbs.

TIFF’s opening film is the long-awaited new (and perhaps final?) film from Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron. During World War II, young Mahito Maki suffers a heartbreaking family tragedy and must move immediately to the countryside, where his father works for a family making planes for Japan’s military. There he encounters a grey heron, which eventually leads him into wondrous, strange world. The film was originally planned as a direct adaptation of Genzaburo Yoshino’s novel How Do You Live?, one of Miyazaki’s favorite books. But in the final film, that philosophical coming-of-age story is but one of the many layers of inspiration that connects fiction with the director’s own youth.

YOUNG ADULT

Everyone is talking about the world premiere Next Goal Wins, the new film from Taika Waititi, an off-beat sports comedy about the American Samoa soccer team’s attempt to make a World Cup twelve years after a disastrous 31-0 loss in a 2002 World Cup qualifying match. While the young soccer players are not quite as hopeless in Warren St. John’s Outcasts United, they are a team of real underdogs. The book is the story of the Fugees – a real-life youth soccer team made up of refugees from around the world – and how they overcame many challenges and rallied support in their Georgia community.

The Holdovers marks the return of director Alexander Payne to TIFF, and it stars his sometime muse Paul Giamatti as a strict professor stuck supervising students who stay at an elite boarding school over winter break. Enter one rebellious student, which leads to a battle of wills and, eventually, a mutual respect. The students are less rebellious and more assassin-y in S.T.A.G.S. by M. A. Bennett, a book in which a scholarship student at a prestigious private school learns the legacy students are keen to invite her to a real-life game of manhunt – with her as the prey!

In a North American premiere that was just announced, director Ava DuVernay will present her new film Origin at TIFF in a Gala Presentation. The film is a creative biopic of author Isabel Wilkerson’s life, as she works on the book that would become her New York Times bestseller, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. You can read the final product, as there is a version of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents adapted for young adults by Isabel Wilkerson. The book (and we’re guessing the film) chronicles the lives of real people to reveal an insidious phenomenon in the United States: a hidden caste system. It looks at social hierarchies in India and Nazi Germany, and explains how these systems destroy the lives of vast sections of societies – and how those systems work in America today.

Finally, if you’re in the mood for a good, old-fashioned horror-comedy directed by one of the kids from Stranger Things, check out Hell of a Summer in the Midnight Madness program. Directed by actors Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), this is a self-aware slasher set at a doomed summer camp with plenty of twists. There’s no better pairing than the new YA horror-comedy There’s No Way I’d Die First by Lisa Springer, which hit bookstores earlier this week! The book concerns teen horror buff Noelle Layne, who throws a massive Halloween party that turns deadly when the actor she hired to play Pennywise from Stephen King’s It starts killing off her party guests. Luckily, Noelle has been spending most of her life training to be a final girl.

That’s a wrap! See you at the movies – AND the bookstore!

Tuesdays with Tundra

Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. These titles are now available in stores and online!

Hans Christian Andersen Lives Next Door
By Cary Fagan
160 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880159 | Tundra Books
Andie Gladman is your typical kid – she lives in a small town, doesn’t have many friends and quietly puts up with taunts from the school bully, Myrtle Klinghoffer. But one day, a new neighbor moves into the house next to Andie’s family . . . and he looks awfully familiar. Could he be famous author Hans Christian Andersen? Andie sure thinks so, and the arrival of this well-known writer inspires Andie to write her own poems (with a feminist twist) based on his classic fairy tales. Her newfound hobby leads her to make a friend and finally feel some excitement about her previously quiet life . . . but will a shocking revelation change everything for Andie?

Hans Christian Andersen Lives Next Door is also available today in Audiobook!

House of Ash and Bone
By Joel A. Sutherland
336 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880968 | Tundra Books
Seventeen-year-old Josephine Jagger is a talented writer with special abilities she doesn’t fully understand. Over the years she has developed methods to cope with the voices she hears in her head, but the old house her family has inherited in Vermont makes Josephine question what’s real and what’s not more than anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s filled with shadows, and whispers, and the unshakable feeling of being watched. Josephine then catches her first glimpse of a shadowy woman with long hair, pale skin, an impossibly wide smile and hollow pits for eyes. Her name is Dorcas, the ghost of a witch who died three hundred years ago. She has summoned the family to Vermont to ensnare them – then consume them – in order to rise from the grave and live again . . .

House of Ash and Bone is also available today in Audiobook!

Mama’s Sleeping Scarf
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writing as Nwa Grace-James
Illustrated by Joelle Avelino
32 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774882696 | Puffin Canada
Chino loves the scarf that her mama ties around her hair at night. But when Mama leaves for the day, what happens to her scarf? Chino takes it on endless adventures! Peeking through the colorful haze of the silky scarf, Chino and her toy bunny can look at her whole family as they go through their routines. With stunning illustrations from Joelle Avelino, Mama’s Sleeping Scarf is a celebration of family, and a touching story about the everyday objects that remind us of the ones we love.

New in Paperback:

How to Give Your Cat a Bath in Five Easy Steps
By Nicola Winstanley
Illustrated by John Martz
36 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774883631 | Tundra Books
Step one: fill the bath
Step two: put the cat in the bath
Step three: put shampoo on the cat
Step four: rinse the cat
Step five: dry the cat
Seems simple, right? One problem: the cat has no intention of doing ANY of these things! Watch as the steps keep changing, the cat keeps escaping, the girl keeps eating cookies and the mess keeps escalating. Soon it’s not just the cat who needs a bath – it’s the whole house!

Narwhal and Jelly: Super Pod Party Pack!
By Ben Clanton
136 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774883730 | Tundra Books
A double helping of Narwhal and Jelly in a brand-new format! Join the underwater duo in this two-book graphic novel bind-up of their first two adventures – with extras like drawing guides, a superhero name generator and a pod pledge! A podtastic offering for new and old fans alike! This paperback bind-up of the first two Narwhal and Jelly titles (Unicorn of the Sea! and Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt) is full to the brim with personality, hilarity and most importantly, waffles. Join Narwhal and Jelly on their very first meeting, all the way to them becoming superheroes!

We can’t wait to see you reading these titles! If you share these books online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.

Tundra Top Ten: September

Want to know what everyone else has been reading and loving lately? Every month we will share our list of top ten bestselling kids’ books that we publish into North America. Here are the Tundra and Puffin Canada titles for the month of September 2022 – how many have you read?

1. Narwhal and Jelly Series
By Ben Clanton
Ages 6-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735271364 | Tundra Books
Narwhal is a happy-go-lucky narwhal. Jelly is a no-nonsense jellyfish. The two might not have a lot in common, but they do both love waffles, parties and adventures. Join Narwhal and Jelly as they discover the whole wide ocean together. A wonderfully silly early graphic novel series with each volume featuring three stories. The series celebrates the value of positivity and creativity.

2. Night Lunch
By Eric Fan
Illustrated by Dena Seiferling
48 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735270572 | Tundra Books
Noses sniff the air as mouthwatering smells waft down city streets, luring growling bellies to the Night Owl. Inside this elegant, horse-drawn establishment, a feathery cook works the grill, serving up tasty dishes for shift-workers and operagoers alike: a mince pie for Fox, a ham sandwich for Badger and puddings for little Possums. Mouse, a poor street sweeper, watches as the line of customers swells, ever hopeful that someone will drop a morsel of food – but Owl’s cooking is far too delicious for more than a crumb to be found. As the evening’s service winds down, weary Owl spots trembling Mouse. Has he found his own night lunch, or will he invite this small sweeper inside for a midnight feast for two? From the imagination of two acclaimed picture book creators, together for the first time, this dreamlike picture book is a magical ode to Victorian lunch wagons. Evoking the sounds, sights, smells and tastes of the city at night, Night Lunch reveals how empathy and kindness as well as dignity and gratitude can be found – and savored – in the most unexpected places.

3. The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga #1
By David A. Robertson
256 Pages | Ages 10+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735266100 | Puffin Canada
Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home – until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. But as the need for food becomes desperate, they embark on a dangerous mission. Accompanied by Arik, a sassy Squirrel they catch stealing from the trapline, they try to save Misewa before the icy grip of winter freezes everything – including them.

4. The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt
By Riel Nason
Illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler
48 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735264472 | Tundra Books
Ghosts are supposed to be sheets, light as air and able to whirl and twirl and float and soar. But the little ghost who is a quilt can’t whirl or twirl at all, and when he flies, he gets very hot. He doesn’t know why he’s a quilt. His parents are both sheets, and so are all of his friends. (His great-grandmother was a lace curtain, but that doesn’t really help cheer him up.) He feels sad and left out when his friends are zooming around and he can’t keep up. But one Halloween, everything changes. The little ghost who was a quilt has an experience that no other ghost could have, an experience that only happens because he’s a quilt . . . and he realizes that it’s OK to be different.

5. Ghostlight
By Kenneth Oppel
400 Pages | Ages 10+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735272330 | Puffin Canada
The story of the tragic death of sixteen-year-old Rebecca Strand and her lighthouse keeper father is just an elaborate tale Gabe tells tourists for his summer job on the Toronto Island. Or so he thought. When his ghost tours awaken Rebecca’s spirit, Gabe is drawn into a world far darker than any ghost story he’s ever heard. Rebecca reveals that she and her father were connected to The Order, a secret society devoted to protecting the world from “the wakeful and wicked dead”—malevolent spirits like Viker, the ghost responsible for their deaths. But now the Order has disappeared and Viker is growing even stronger, and he’ll stop at nothing to wreak chaos and destruction on the living. Gabe and his friends – both living and dead – must find a way to stop Viker before they all become lost souls.

6. How to Teach Your Cat a Trick in Five Easy Steps
By Nicola Winstanley
Illustrated by Zoe Si
52 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735270619 | Tundra Books
Step one: Decide on a trick
Step two: Get some treats ready
Step three: Hold the treat in your hand and ask your cat to do the trick
Step four: Watch your cat do exactly what you asked him to do
Step five: Reward your cat for doing the trick
Simple, right? This spoof on an instruction manual features an increasingly bewildered human, a nonchalant cat, a very good dog and a know-it-all narrator . . . who really doesn’t know it all. How DO you teach a cat a trick? Read on to find out!

7. Kumo: The Bashful Cloud
By Kyo Maclear
Illustrated by Nathalie Dion
64  Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735267282 | Tundra Books
Kumo is a cloud whose only wish is to float unseen. When she’s assigned cloud duty for the day, she feels overwhelmed by self-doubt and her fear of being noticed. But after learning that closing your eyes isn’t a good solution to your troubles, Kumo pulls her fluff together and does her duties – drifting, releasing rain and providing shelter – meeting some new friends along the way and inspiring the imagination (and capturing the heart) of a small daydreamer like her. Kyo Maclear’s sweetly humorous and lyrical parable about shyness, vividly brought to life by Nathalie Dion’s ethereal illustrations, is an affirmation of the pleasures of community and the confidence that can arise from friendship and visibility.

8. My Self, Your Self
By Esmé Shapiro
48 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880234 | Tundra Books
From the way you button your coat to the way you tap your toes, from the top of your head to your adorable tummy, there are so many reasons to love your self, and so many reasons to be loved. Join a group of endearing forest creatures as they bake and eat cranberry-butter-pie muffins, sing silly songs at bath time and stop to smell the chestnut-nettle roses, all the while exploring their individuality. This joyously affirming picture book from the inimitable Esmé Shapiro encourages the youngest readers to get to know and love and be kind to their wonderful selves and the equally wonderful selves around them.

9. How to Make Friends with a Ghost
By Rebecca Green
40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Paperback
ISBN 9781774880401 | Tundra Books
What do you do when you meet a ghost? One: Provide the ghost with some of its favorite snacks, like mud tarts and earwax truffles. Two: Tell your ghost bedtime stories (ghosts love to be read to). Three: Make sure no one mistakes your ghost for whipped cream or a marshmallow when you aren’t looking! If you follow these few simple steps and the rest of the essential tips in How to Make Friends with a Ghost, you’ll see how a ghost friend will lovingly grow up and grow old with you. A whimsical story about ghost care, Rebecca Green’s debut picture book is a perfect combination of offbeat humor, quirky and sweet illustrations, and the timeless theme of friendship.

10. Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf: A Counting Story
By Davide Cali
Illustrated by Marianna Balducci
36 Pages | Ages 3-6 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735269910 | Tundra Books
In this clever counting book, the big bad wolf doesn’t want to tell a long story. He wants to get to the eating part. But the reader has other ideas. From a pig soccer team to a pig for every letter of the alphabet to 101 pigs in an animated movie, the stories get more and more fantastical . . . but they’re always too short and they ALL end the same way. Using an abacus as the basis for her illustrations, Marianna creates beguiling little pigs and a menacing but slightly bored wolf that perfectly complement the inventive story by Davide Cali. Come for the counting, stay for the storytelling! This book has it all.

Tuesdays with Tundra

Tuesdays with Tundra

Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. The following titles are now available in stores and online!

Green Mountain Academy
By Frances Greenslade
240 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735267848 | Tundra Books
After a family trip turned disastrous when their truck broke down in the middle of an old logging road in Oregon, Francie is now back in British Columbia. People try to make things as “normal” as possible for her, but they don’t understand that trying to be normal in your old life that’s exploded is the worst feeling in the world. Luckily for Francie, the wilderness is still soothing, and an opportunity to attend the Green Mountain Academy, a tiny boarding school perched on the side of a mountain, seems perfect. It’s a new start, with new friends and a chance at a new family. But when a winter storm hits, knocking out all the power, news that a small plane has gone missing unsettles Francie. Knowing that the chance of survival in the middle of a wild nighttime snowstorm diminishes over time, Francie is compelled to leave the cozy school and set out into the icy cold, swirling snowstorm.

How to Teach Your Cat a Trick in Five Easy Steps
By Nicola Winstanley
Illustrated by Zoe Si
52 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735270619 | Tundra Books
Step one: Decide on a trick
Step two: Get some treats ready
Step three: Hold the treat in your hand and ask your cat to do the trick
Step four: Watch your cat do exactly what you asked him to do
Step five: Reward your cat for doing the trick
Simple, right? This spoof on an instruction manual features an increasingly bewildered human, a nonchalant cat, a very good dog and a know-it-all narrator . . . who really doesn’t know it all. How DO you teach a cat a trick? Read on to find out!

My Self, Your Self
By Esmé Shapiro
48 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774880234 | Tundra Books
From the way you button your coat to the way you tap your toes, from the top of your head to your adorable tummy, there are so many reasons to love your self, and so many reasons to be loved. Join a group of endearing forest creatures as they bake and eat cranberry-butter-pie muffins, sing silly songs at bath time and stop to smell the chestnut-nettle roses, all the while exploring their individuality. This joyously affirming picture book from the inimitable Esmé Shapiro encourages the youngest readers to get to know and love and be kind to their wonderful selves and the equally wonderful selves around them.

Night Lunch
By Eric Fan
Illustrated by Dena Seiferling
48 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735270572 | Tundra Books
Noses sniff the air as mouthwatering smells waft down city streets, luring growling bellies to the Night Owl. Inside this elegant, horse-drawn establishment, a feathery cook works the grill, serving up tasty dishes for shift-workers and operagoers alike: a mince pie for Fox, a ham sandwich for Badger and puddings for little Possums. Mouse, a poor street sweeper, watches as the line of customers swells, ever hopeful that someone will drop a morsel of food – but Owl’s cooking is far too delicious for more than a crumb to be found. As the evening’s service winds down, weary Owl spots trembling Mouse. Has he found his own night lunch, or will he invite this small sweeper inside for a midnight feast for two? From the imagination of two acclaimed picture book creators, together for the first time, this dreamlike picture book is a magical ode to Victorian lunch wagons. Evoking the sounds, sights, smells and tastes of the city at night, Night Lunch reveals how empathy and kindness as well as dignity and gratitude can be found – and savored – in the most unexpected places.

Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf: A Counting Story
By Davide Cali
Illustrated by Marianna Balducci
36 Pages | Ages 3-6 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735269910 | Tundra Books
In this clever counting book, the big bad wolf doesn’t want to tell a long story. He wants to get to the eating part. But the reader has other ideas. From a pig soccer team to a pig for every letter of the alphabet to 101 pigs in an animated movie, the stories get more and more fantastical . . . but they’re always too short and they ALL end the same way. Using an abacus as the basis for her illustrations, Marianna creates beguiling little pigs and a menacing but slightly bored wolf that perfectly complement the inventive story by Davide Cali. Come for the counting, stay for the storytelling! This book has it all.

New in Audio:

Journal of a Travelling Girl
By Nadine Neema
Read by Nadine Neema
Ages 10-14 | Audiobook
ISBN 9781774882924 | Tundra Books
Eleven-year-old Julia has lived in Wekweètì, NWT, since she was five. Although the people of Wekweètì have always treated her as one of their own, Julia sometimes feels like an outsider, disconnected from the traditions and ancestral roots that are so central to the local culture. When Julia sets off on the canoe trip she is happy her best friends, Layla and Alice, will also be there. However, the trip is nothing like she expected. She is afraid of falling off the boat, of bears, and of storms. Layla’s grandparents (who Julia calls Grandma and Grandpa) put her to work but won’t let her paddle the canoe. While on land Julia would rather goof around with her friends than do chores. Gradually, Grandma and Grandpa show her how to survive on the land and pull her own weight, and share their traditional stories with her. Julia learns to gather wood, cook, clean, and paddle the canoe, becoming more mature and responsible each day. The journey ends at Behchoko, where the historic Tłı̨chǫ Agreement of 2005 is signed, and the Tłı̨chǫ People celebrate their hard-won right to self-government. Julia is there to witness history. Inspired by true events, this story was written at the request of John B. Zoe, Chief Negotiator of the Tłı̨chǫ Agreement, as a way of teaching the Tłı̨chǫ youth about that landmark achievement. Journal of a Travelling Girl has been read and endorsed by several Wekweètì community members and Elders. The book will appeal to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children for its relatable themes of family, loss, coming-of-age, and the struggle to connect with tradition and culture.

We can’t wait to see you reading these titles! If you share these books online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.

Tundra Telegram: Dream Books for your “Endless” TBR Pile

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we reflect on the topics that are currently running through our minds, and kindly recommend some books we think might mesmerize you.

After years of false starts and dashed hopes, fans of Neil Gaiman’s beloved and acclaimed The Sandman comic series finally got the chance to see the television adaptation when it premiered on Netflix this past weekend. Starring Tom Sturridge as Dream / Morpheus, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, and partially adapted by Gaiman himself, the series follows the king of dreams, as he escapes from captivity and attempts to restore order to his realm, called The Dreaming.

Of course, the best thing to do is to check out the collected editions of The Sandman, particularly the first two collections – Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House – that the series roughly adapts. But if you want more suggestions for books of all ages about sleeping and dream worlds, we’ve got some nighttime reading material for you!

PICTURE BOOKS

Though the Sandman television series demonstrates there are a few reasons to be afraid of the dark, A Bedtime Yarn by Nicola Winstanley and Olivia Chin-Mueller has an answer to that. Little bear Frankie is given a ball of yarn to hold when he goes to bed, and his mother will hold onto the other end in the next room, working it into a surprise for him. The yarn’s colors affect the dreams he has, and eventually he learns he’s always connected to the people he loves – even while asleep!

Basically the Neil Gaiman of picture books, Nicola Winstanley also penned The Pirate’s Bed, illustrated by Matt James, which gives young readers a view into the world of pirate dreams. That is, it does before the bed (who is wide awake while the pirate on top sleeps) is cast out to sea on his own during a shipwreck. Will a bed without a sleeper find happiness? Or will it feel somehow not whole?

If vivid dreams are what you want, you need Dream Animals by Emily Winfield Martin. Discover what your dream animal might be – a bear who invites you to make baked goods or some tea-partying mermaids? Dreams haven’t seemed this fun since Van Halen recorded 5150.

In the same vein, Sean Taylor and Anuska Allepuz’s The Dream Train features thirty lushly illustrated bedtime poems for and about sleepyheads of all kinds. The Sandman rarely delved into the dreams of ducks or bats like The Dream Train does, but maybe it should have?

If there’s one question the Sandman knows the answer to, it’s What Will You Dream of Tonight?, which is also a picture book by Frances Stickley and Anuska Allepuz (who must love dreams!). A parent wonders what their child will dream of: Deserts? Waterfalls? Dragon-filled caves? This is a creative tale of dreamtime adventures.

Keeping to the comic book roots of The Sandman, check out the Little Golden Book Trouble in the Dream Dimension by Dave Croatto and Shane Clester, featuring rival comic company character Doctor Strange as he protects the dream world from the villain Nightmare, devoted to spooking kids (and adults) as they snooze.

In You Byun’s Dream Friends, a young girl Melody has the most wonderful friend in her dreams, and they do a bunch of fantastical things together. But when Melody wakes up, she’s back in the real world where she has no friends. This all changes when her dream friend inspires her to take some actions to change her friend status in the real world. (But her dream friend also happens to be a massive sort of flying cat, which will be tough for her first real friend to live up to, IMHO.)

Though the series has not yet adapted the Sandman collection Dream Country, readers of the comic know that the issue “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” introduces Morpheus’s collab with William Shakespeare, and became the only comic book in history to win a World Fantasy Award. Accordingly, we recommend the new picture book,  William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, adapted by Georghia Ellinas and illustrated by Jane Ray, for the youngest audiences.

And like some sort of Australian Morpheus, the titular character in Robert Ingpen’s The Dream Keeper lives in the realm between being asleep and awake, and uses a number of tricks and traps to ensnare the wild creatures of our dreams before they can escape into reality.

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

Though he doesn’t quite have the powers of Morpheus, the protagonist of Julian, Dream Doctor by Ann Cameron and Ann Strugnell does his best to enter his father’s dreams to get him the perfect birthday gift. Julian wants to get his dad a birthday gift that he’s “always dreamed of.” So he creates a brainwave machine, communicates through the TV antenna’s signals, interrogates his father while asleep, and does whatever he can to secretly learn what his father’s dream is, even if it happens to be a nightmare!

The Dollhouse by Charis Cotter is not only just a space, an apostrophe, and an “s” away from the title of one of the Sandman books adapted for the show, it’s also a spooky, atmospheric story that weaves the dream world with the waking one. Alice’s parents split up and she moves with her mom when she becomes a live-in nurse for an older woman. Alice finds a dollhouse in the attic that’s a replica of the house they live in, and before she knows it, she wakes up to find a girl asleep next to her in her bed – a girl who exactly like one of the dolls from the dollhouse (I may never sleep again!).

The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson mirrors the Sandman books in its belief in the (literal magic) power of art and literature. Poppy’s family owns the magic bookshop Rhyme and Reason, which is situated in WWII New York, but caters to customers from around the world and from the past and future. When her older brother threatens to break the most important rule among magic Booksellers, Poppy is caught in an impossible situation.

And, of course, a perfect companion to the Sandman series is Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller’s Nightmares! trilogy (illustrated by Karl Kwasny), and not just because the books have often been compared to another Gaiman creation, Coraline. Charlie Laird has a major problem: not only does he have trouble sleeping because of terrible nightmare, but his nightmares have started slipping out of his dreams and into the waking world of Cypress Creek. Charlie and his friends – in the original book, as well as The Sleepwalker Tonic and The Lost Lullaby – must face their fears and save their town.

YOUNG ADULT

You can’t even start to mention YA about dreams without talking about Cherie Dimaline’s Hunting by Stars. The follow-up to The Marrow Thieves, in which Indigenous people are being hunted across North America and placed residential schools to harvest their bone marrow. The reason: Indigenous people are still able to dream, an ability lost by everyone else, and this dreaming ability is believed to be housed in the marrow (something overlooked in Sandman!). This book follows seventeen-year-old French, who survived the first book, as he heads north with a group of other dreamers who try to build a new community – until the school Recruiters hunt him down.

It’s an older title, but Dream Girl by Lauren Mechling, is all about Claire Voyante, a fifteen-year-old girl whose dream visions become a lot clearer when she’s given a cameo necklace by her grandmother Kiki. What can she do next but solve madcap mysteries with her psychic sleeping powers?

And the techno-futuristic take on Sleeping Beauty, A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan, follows Rosalinda Fitzroy, in a chemically induced slumber in a stasis tube for 62 years until she is kissed awake. But the world Rose wakes to is the aftermath of an apocalyptic era that killed millions in which she’s seen as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire (that old story!).

Sweet dreams and happy reading!