WHAT HAPPENS WHILE YOU SLEEP

When Conshus lowers the eyelids, it’s time for Hippo and Campus to spring into action.

Reflecting what goes on—in part, sort of—in little Malu’s brain once she snoozes off, Russelmann envisions two busy figures in stocking caps bustling about, sorting the day’s many sounds, bottles of smells, and envelopes of images into variously labeled storage boxes such as “Danger” and “Foods I Like.” At the same time, they add strings of letters and numbers (more every day) to a “tree of knowledge” with great, spreading branches. An “L” that is facing the right way replaces one that’s backward on the tree while a special picture of Malu with Mom and Dad and elephants at the zoo goes into a treasure chest for quick access. Less-valuable ones, like the umpteenth view of daisies, go into a big trash can. Racing to finish, Hippo delivers a picture of Teddy Bear in the bathroom to supervisor Conshus in her tower just as Malu wakes, stretches…and remembers just where she left her bear! Though Malu, her parents, and all three figures inside her head are light-skinned, her name, at least, hints at a non-European origin. Although this German import doesn’t tell anything like the whole sleep story, it does at least offer a conceptual framework for broader first introductions like Elaine Scott’s All About Sleep From A to ZZZZ (illustrated by John O’Brien, 2008).  

A strange fancy—but, from a certain angle, not a brainless one.