Read When Mermaids Sleep Online
Authors: Ann Bonwill
When Mermaids Sleep
Text copyright © 2013 by Ann Bonwill
Jacket art and interior illustrations copyright © 2013 by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bonwill, Ann.
When mermaids sleep / by Ann Bonwill ; illustrated by Steven Johnson & Lou Fancher.
p. cm.
Summary: When the moon shines into your room at night and casts a dreamy light, it is time to say good night.
ISBN 978-0-375-87061-3 (trade) — ISBN 978-0-375-97061-0 (lib. bdg.)
[1. Stories in rhyme. 2. Bedtime—Fiction.] I. Johnson, Steve, 1960–, ill. II. Fancher, Lou, ill. III. Title.
PZ8.3.B6442Whe 2013 [E]—dc23 2012001881
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-375-87061-3
eBook ISBN: 978-0-375-98096-1
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v3.1
To Sam, my stargazer
—A.B.
For Katie, who sees more than others do,
even with her eyes closed
—S.J. and L.F.
When mermaids sleep in oceans deep
inside their coral caves,
they lay their heads on seaweed beds,
rocked softly by the waves.
Those same waves carry sailing ships
from shore to distant shore.
Abed in bunks, asleep on trunks,
the scruffy pirates snore.
Inside those rusty iron trunks
their stolen treasures gleam,
dug up from sands in far-off lands
where genies gently dream.
That same sand builds a castle strong
with towers ten in number,
where all afloat, within the moat,
the royal serpents slumber.
Atop those towers in the sky
the regal wizards keep
their eyes on Mars and all the stars
before they fall asleep.
Those same stars twinkle in the woods
where ivy hangs like eaves
and unicorns rest tired horns
on pillows made of leaves.
On wings of wind those leaves are swept
to mighty mountains high,
where tall crests shake and valleys quake
as sleeping giants sigh.
In those same valleys, blue with dusk,
inside the giants’ shoes,
snuggled tight in blankets white,
the sneaky goblins snooze.
