Name: Sleep, Merel, Sleep
Rating: 3.50 (2 reviews)

I have gotten away from reading middle-grade books. No real reason. I stopped requesting them on NetGalley. I rarely get an author request through my contact form/email. So, when the author contacted me to review Sleep, Merel, Sleep I almost declined. Then I read the blurb and my attention was caught. From what I read the blurb, I needed to read the book. I am glad that I decided to accept the request because Sleep, Merel, Sleep was a one of a kind middle grade book.

Merel’s Sleep went AWOL. He was tired of listening to her tantrums. He was tired of trying to get her to sleep. He was tired of watching her struggle to go to sleep. So he left. Merel learns that he left when she finds his violin on her rug. That finds sends her on a journey to find her Sleep in a place called Lullaby Grove. But, Merel is also stalked by a stranger. This stranger doesn’t want her to find her Sleep or Lullaby Grove. He has other reasons for keeping her from finding them and they aren’t great.

I will be the first one to admit that Merel was unlikable during the first few chapters of the book. She came across as a brat who went out of her way to make everyone around her miserable. I was prepared to not like her. But then, something happened. There was more to Merel’s story than what the author first shared. There was a significant amount of trauma that happened to Merel within a couple of months. My dislike of her started to go away while journeying to Lullaby Grove. By the time she was on the Sandman’s Beach, my dislike of her faded. I pitied her but I also realized that she was a strong child.

I liked how the author addressed the issues of death and having a sick sibling. Merel’s reactions to the turmoil going on in her life were what I would expect an 8-year-old to do. I also liked how the author chose to have Merel make peace with everything that happened to her. Even the scary things that happened to her was a way of making her accept and move on.

I did find parts of the book to be scary. Mainly, the scenes with the scary stranger. What he did to Merel at the end of the book shocked me. I wasn’t expecting it. It did make sense

The end of the book confused me at first. I had to reread the last chapter to understand. It confused me because Merel went from one situation to another without the reader knowing. Saying that I did like it because the author left if Merel completed her journey until the end.

What I liked about Sleep, Merel, Sleep:

A) Original storyline

B) Merel’s journey

C) Seeing Merel’s journey to accepting everything that happened to her.

What I disliked about Sleep, Merel, Sleep:

A) The stranger. I thought he was too scary at certain points in the book

B) The death of Merel’s grandfather and the premie birth of her brother back to back.

C) The end of the book. I got confused and had to reread the first few chapters.

I would give Sleep, Merel, Sleep a rating of Child. There are no sexual situations. There is very mild violence. There is no language. There are several scenes that could scare a younger child. Also, there are scenes describing a car accident and a premie in the hospital that could scare a child. While this book could be read by children under the age of 10, I would supervise them reading it.

There are trigger warnings in Sleep, Merel, Sleep. They are the death of a grandparent and a sick sibling. If you or your child is triggered by those then I suggest not reading the book.

I would recommend Sleep, Merel, Sleep to family and friends. I would make sure that they knew about the triggers. This is a book that I would reread.

I would like to thank Silke Stein for allowing me to read and review Sleep, Merel, Sleep.

All opinions stated in this review of Sleep, Merel, Sleep are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

📣 Sleep, Merel, Sleep is now available on Amazon!

Sleep, Merel, Sleep, your father tends the sheep. Your mother shakes the dreamland tree and from it fall sweet dreams for thee, sleep, Merel, sleep.

3.5 stars Silke Stein has woven a surreal tale with lyrical prose that brings the reader into a weird and dreamlike fantasy world. Merel is an angry eight year old girl who has been kind of neglected by her parents after the birth of her sick baby brother, and the book starts with Merel throwing a tantrum in her bed to try to get the attention of her parents. The only attention she received, unfortunately, was from Merel's Sleep, who dropped his violin off and left. And now she must embark on an adventure to return the violin to her Sleep or she will be awake forever. Along the way she meets a myriad of characters, from a sleeping king to a saleswoman for the Sandman's finest.

Merel is brave, and comes to terms with both her brother and her parent's being overwhelmed during her adventure. I do wish that there had been more of a lead-in to her journey; the book went from her meeting Morph in her room to her leaving her house in the middle of the night and interacting with adults three days later. I know that this is fantasy, and part of the allure of this particular book is the dreamlike narrative, but it does bother me a little bit since this is a middle-grade book. Something just doesn't sit well with me that I think may have been negated by this particular segue being navigated differently.

Overall I enjoyed this story; Stein has a vast imagination. I think that children who have felt the jealousy of no longer being the only child and the resentment toward their younger sibling will relate with the anger and frustration that Merel experiences. The various characters that she meets on her adventure were so imaginative, and I laughed at the pea bit! Admittedly I felt the ending was a bit abrupt, but it is likely written this way to be left open for interpretation. Was she dreaming all along? But what was with the conductor? So many questions!!!

ARC provided by the author, Silke Stein, in exchange for my honest review.

Sleep, Merel, Sleep

by Silke Stein

Sleep, Merel, Sleep

by Silke Stein

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