A spend on Mr. sandman bring me a dream. Good story before bed time. Helps set an illusion of how dreams come to us in our sleep. ( )

Taking the daina - a traditional form of poetry and song that incorporates figures and themes from pre-Christian Latvian folklore - as an inspiration, Barbara Juster Esbenson tells the story of the "Dream Mouse," who goes creaking through a rural village with his Dream Cart, sending all the children off the sleep with his beautiful visions. A beautiful white swan on a lake, the wedding of the sun's daughter to the moon, the sons and daughters of Father Thunder - all find their way into the dreams of the village's children, as the Dream Mouse passes by...

Although I the story here rather lacking, I still found The Dream Mouse immensely enjoyable. I've been hearing about the dainas from my Latvian brother-in-law and his family for some time now, and am very interested in this form of folk-poetry/music. Sadly, I know of only one or two anthologies in English, and all difficult to track down and prohibitively expensive! So this picture-book, with its series of dream-like images that are clearly taken out of Latvian folklore (the sun goddess and moon god, for instance), is particularly interesting to me! The narrative has a very peaceful tone, with its progression of dreams, making it a good bedtime book, particularly for fairy-tale fans, who will appreciate its themes. The artwork by Judith Mitchell is just lovely - I particularly liked the image of the father returning from the sea - and is well suited to the fantastic dream-like vistas evoked in the text.

All in all, a beautiful little book, one I would recommend to young folklore and fairy-tale lovers, and to anyone looking for children's books with a Latvian theme. Now, if only I could find an anthology of dainas in translation... ( )