Title: The Dream Train: Poems for Bedtime
Author: Sean Taylor
Illustrator: Anuska Allepuz
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Children’s picture book, Poetry
Book format: Hardback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: It’s shut-your-eyes-time, say-goodnight time, hushabye time, at last…
From best-selling picture book author, Sean Taylor, comes a bedtime poetry book. These 30 cosy, read-aloud poems range from the gentle to the funny and from the musical to the magical. each captures something about night-time, sleep or dreams. and it’s a collection that celebrates, as all Sean’s work does, the wonderful, busy, imaginative minds of young children.
This keep-forever hug of a book takes readers on a spectacular visual journey into dreamland and beyond and showcases the incredibly rich and inviting artwork of Anuskha Allepuz.
*Free copy provided by publisher for review….
Review: This is a lovely book of bedtime poems for children. The book is bigger than A4 in size and the hardback is filled with thick matt pages of some lovely illustrations and text. The hardback features a dust jacket which if removed show a different image on the cover of a child sleeping (which I have photographed and shown).
The book is split into three different sections: Night Arrives, Shut-Your-Eyes-Time and Dream Wheels Turning. Each section has several poems all on the theme of night time, trying to sleep and dreaming and I have to say that I really enjoyed a lot of the poems in this collection especially many of the poems that rhyme. Each poem has its own page or double page and is accompanied by some lovely illustrations. Some of the poems are longer than others but all of them are fun to read aloud and the pictures that you see on each poem’s page really add to the enjoyment of this book.
The illustrations are all so amazing. I’m already a fan of the illustrator’s work in previous books that I’ve seen but I have to say that in this book each picture is such a joy to look at and there are so many interesting details to see on each page or double page that you can’t help but want to just keep the page open and look at each picture long after reading a poem! I love how you can spot many of the same characters in future poems, like the shadows of the bear and its cub or the children from previous poems showing up in others later on. These details as well as others really make each poem feel so much more magical to read, and I have to say I really love this book for the pictures alone and it really brings to life the magic of some of the poems like ‘The Dream Train’ too! I even love the little details that have nothing to do with the poems like what is happening with the girl in the poem called ‘The Middle of the Night’!
There are a variety of poems in this book, but all of them are a fun to read and they talk about the various aspects of night time, trying to fall asleep (and some of the difficulties in doing that) and finally dreaming. I do love some of the poems more than the others, especially the rhyming poems like ‘Asked by a Pillow’, ‘Grandpa’s Guitar’ and I especially love the poem ‘Cave Bear’s Snore’ which has a brilliant and very funny ending! I also love how interesting and different the poems are like some poems about the things that stop you from sleeping like in ‘The Sleep Stealers’ and poems about how the whole house and everything else inside it is asleep. Every poem is fun to read and although some are better than others, with the illustrations I think this is a lovely poetry book which will be adored and cherished by many children and parents and will be looked at it again and again! 🙂
What do you think of this book? Did you enjoy any bedtime poems while younger? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 