A complete Sweetest Dreams sample bedtime story
Jack found the map just after his bedroom light went out.
It was folded into a neat little square and tucked under the corner of his pillow. At first he thought it might be a leaf from the garden, because it was green and soft and had tiny veins running through it.
But leaves did not usually have words written across them in shiny blue ink.
This one did.
Jack held it close to the moonlight coming through the curtains.
The words said:
For Jack. Please open carefully. Some dinosaurs are already sleepy.
Jack sat up at once.
He loved dinosaurs. He loved maps too. And he especially loved things that arrived under pillows with mysterious instructions.
He unfolded the leaf.
It opened once.
Then twice.
Then one more time, until it was much bigger than any leaf had a right to be.
A little picture appeared in the middle. It showed a valley with hills, a river, a forest of ferns, and a round stone marked with a sleepy face.
At the top were three words:
Dinosaur Valley Bedtime Route.
Jack grinned. “Brilliant.”
The bedroom rug gave a small wiggle.
Jack looked down.
The rug was no longer blue and square. It had become soft green grass. His toy box had turned into a hill. His bookshelf had grown tall and leafy. The moon on his curtains had become a real moon, hanging above a wide, quiet valley.
A tiny rumbling sound came from beside the bed.
Grumf.
Jack leaned over.
A baby dinosaur was standing there.
It was about the size of a big dog, with round brown eyes, a long tail, and little green plates down its back. It was holding the wrong end of the map in its mouth.
“Hello,” said Jack.
The dinosaur yawned so widely that Jack could see its pink tongue curl like a ribbon.
“Grumf,” said the dinosaur again.
“You sound tired.”
The dinosaur nodded.
Jack climbed carefully out of bed and stood on the grass. It felt cool under his feet, but not wet. The baby dinosaur dropped the map and nudged it towards him.
“Are you lost?” Jack asked.
The dinosaur nodded again.
“Do you need to get somewhere before bedtime?”
The dinosaur pointed with its nose to the round stone on the map.
“The Sleepy Stone,” Jack read. “Is that where dinosaurs go to sleep?”
The baby dinosaur blinked slowly.
“All right,” said Jack. “I can help. But we should be quick, because you look like you might fall asleep standing up.”
The dinosaur gave a tiny snore and woke itself with a surprised snort.
Jack laughed quietly. “Come on then.”
They set off across Dinosaur Valley.
The valley was enormous, but gentle. Ferns grew taller than umbrellas. Warm lights glowed inside hollow logs, like little bedtime lamps. Far away, a group of long-necked dinosaurs munched sleepy leaves from the tops of trees.
One lifted its head and whispered, “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” Jack whispered back.
At the first hill, Jack checked the map.
“We go past the Three Humming Rocks,” he said.
Ahead of them stood three round stones. Each one hummed a different note.
Mmmm.
Oooo.
Aaaa.
Together they sounded like the beginning of a lullaby.
The baby dinosaur’s eyes began to close.
“Not yet,” Jack said, gently patting its back. “We have to find your bed first.”
The dinosaur shook itself awake and followed him around the stones.
On the other side was a river. It moved slowly through the valley, shining silver under the moon. Instead of splashing, it whispered.
Sleepy now, sleepy soon,
Follow the path under the moon.
“That’s helpful,” said Jack.
The river whispered again.
Sleepy soon, sleepy now,
Find the footprints. That is how.
Jack looked at the map. The dotted line seemed to stop at the river.
“That can’t be right,” he said.
The baby dinosaur made a worried little sound.
“It’s okay,” Jack said. “Maps sometimes need thinking about.”
He turned the map sideways.
Nothing happened.
He turned it upside down.
Still nothing happened.
Then Jack remembered the river’s whisper.
Find the footprints.
He held the map towards the moon.
Silver marks began to appear across the leaf. Tiny dinosaur footprints, hidden until the moon touched them, crossed the river and curved towards the fern forest.
“There!” Jack said. “Moon footprints.”
The baby dinosaur gave a happy rumble.
A row of flat stones rose from the river, one by one, just where the silver footprints began.
Jack stepped onto the first stone. The baby dinosaur followed. Its little claws clicked softly.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Halfway across, the dinosaur stopped and looked down at the water.
The river whispered, Nearly there, nearly there.
“You’re doing well,” Jack said. “Just three more stones.”
The dinosaur took one step.
Then another.
Then the last.
When they reached the far bank, it leaned against Jack’s side for a moment. It was warm and heavy and very, very sleepy.
They entered the fern forest.
The ferns bent over them like green umbrellas. Small beetles carried lanterns along the path. A moth with blue wings fluttered by and landed on the baby dinosaur’s nose.
The dinosaur sneezed.
Pffft.
The moth tumbled into the air, then flew away as if sneezes were perfectly normal in Dinosaur Valley.
At the end of the forest sat the oldest dinosaur Jack had ever seen.
It was huge and grey, with kind eyes and a blanket of moss over its back. It wore half-moon spectacles on the end of its nose.
“Good evening,” said the old dinosaur.
“Good evening,” said Jack. “We’re looking for the Sleepy Stone.”
“Ah,” said the old dinosaur. “I know every path in this valley.”
“That’s good.”
“Yes,” said the old dinosaur. “Except, sometimes, the one I am currently sitting beside.”
Jack looked down.
Under a fern near the old dinosaur’s foot was a round stone with a sleepy face carved into it.
The baby dinosaur squeaked.
“Excuse me,” Jack said politely. “I think we found it.”
“Well,” said the old dinosaur, “so we did.”
The Sleepy Stone was smooth and round, with soft moss all around it. Several baby dinosaurs were already curled up nearby, their tails tucked around their feet. One was snoring into a fern. Another had fallen asleep with a leaf on its head.
The baby dinosaur gave a happy sigh.
It padded over to the moss, turned in a careful circle, and curled up beside the stone.
Jack tucked the leaf-map near its tiny front claws.
“There,” he said. “Home.”
The baby dinosaur opened one eye. It nudged Jack’s hand with its nose.
“Goodnight,” Jack whispered.
The old dinosaur smiled. “Thank you for helping our smallest explorer.”
“He was brave,” said Jack.
“So were you.”
The leaf-map lifted itself from the moss and floated back into Jack’s hands.
A new dotted line appeared on it. This one led from the Sleepy Stone all the way back to a small drawing of Jack’s bed.
“I think that’s my route,” Jack said.
“Best not to keep your pillow waiting,” said the old dinosaur.
Jack followed the new line through the fern forest, over the whispering river, past the Three Humming Rocks, and across the moonlit grass.
When he reached his bed, the valley had already begun to fold itself away.
The fern trees became books again. The hill became his toy box. The grass became his blue rug.
Jack climbed under the covers.
The leaf-map folded itself into a neat little square and settled on his bedside table.
From somewhere far away, he heard a soft dinosaur snore.
Grumf.
Jack smiled into his pillow.
His room was quiet. The moon was gentle behind the curtains. The map gave one tiny shimmer, then went still.
And in Dinosaur Valley, beside the Sleepy Stone, a baby dinosaur dreamed of silver footprints, warm fern lamps, and a kind boy who knew how to read a bedtime map.