Also by Ann Bonwill: I Am Not a Copycat!   Also illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher: It's Milking Time For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart What a Good Big Brother! Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem When Mermaids Sleep by Ann Bonwill, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher Ages 3-6 32 pages Random House May 2013 Hardcover     Bonwill’s (I Don’t Want to be a Pea!) newest picture book is a bedtime story. Although the title may suggest it, the story is not just about mermaids. The poetic text begins by describing how the seaweed beds, the waves, and the coral caves help the mermaids sleep. Then the story takes the reader higher, to the ship where the pirates and genies sleep. The two-page spread illustrations are devoted to delightful lands where serpents sleep in moats around castles and giants make their beds on mountaintops. Sleep is equated with magic, and it appears as a golden mist above the head of a sleeping child. This fantastical book has the features of a circular story; each character connecting to the other with the beginning resembling the end. Librarians wishing for new material for a pajama story time should purchase this picture book, which is beautifully illustrated by Johnson and Fancher, both recipients of the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal.     web reviews   Tanya Boudreau/2013 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)