The Sleeper Train

by Mick Jackson, Baljinder Kaur (Illustrator)

Overview

When a child is too excited to fall asleep on the night train, she tries thinking about all the places she’s ever slept in this comforting moonlit adventure.

Just as it’s starting to get dark, a child and her family board the sleeper train, where they’ll travel through the night and reach their destination in the morning. But as the train rocks from side to side, rolling through the vast Indian countryside, the child can’t sleep. It’s all too thrilling! So instead, she thinks of all the different places she has peacefully slept, from that cozy spot on Mom and Dad’s bed, to a seaside hotel, to a tent in a field, to Mom’s childhood room at her grandparents’ house. But will that help her to drift off? In this unique bedtime book, Mick Jackson’s charming narrative voice meets Baljinder Kaur’s richly detailed illustrations, set in her parents’ homeland, for a story sure to usher young listeners off to dreamland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536249378
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	07/15/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Mick Jackson is an author, screenwriter, and director. Previously an author for adults, he moved into writing for children with the picture book We’re Moving House, illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh. Mick Jackson’s debut novel, The Underground Man, was short-listed for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award and won the Royal Society of Authors’ First Novel Award. He lives in England.

Baljinder Kaur is an illustrator who creates through the lens of a Panjabi and Sikh diaspora existence. She received an MA in children’s book illustration from the Cambridge School of Art, where she was awarded the CSACBI Illustration for Older Fiction Prize. She lives in England.

Editorial Reviews

This comforting story creates a circle of love and protection around the child and the family, who present as Sikh. The vibrant, stylized illustrations make use of bright pinks, blues, yellows, and reds and depict everyday objects that many South Asian families will recognize. Images of the family relaxing and spending time together add to the homey atmosphere. A soothing bedtime story sure to get readers thinking about their own favorite bedtime locations.
—Kirkus Reviews

Jackson’s first-person narration layers feelings of comfort and warmth across time and space, and Kaur’s saturated illustrations employ electric pinks, purples, and teals to render decorative motifs alongside the train and a range of lushly rendered locales.
—Publishers Weekly

Based on her parents’ homeland and the Punjabi and Sikh diaspora experiences, Kaur’s work incorporates plenty of cultural details in delightful jewel tones, including traditional Indian attire, hair practices, and visual motifs. . . . This is a lilting cultural touchstone great for bedtime.
—Booklist

From the Publisher

2025-04-19
An Indian family embarks on an overnight trip on a sleeper train.

They settle into their cabin, pull open their bunk beds, and get ready for bed. While Mum and Dad quickly drift off, their child is too excited to sleep. But the young narrator has an idea: “I thought it might help if I tried to think of all the different places I have slept.” The youngster remembers slumbering in a tent in a field, sleeping over at Grandma and Granddad’s house, and staying overnight at the hospital for an operation—an especially scary experience. Though the child seems to be “the only person on the train not sleeping, except the driver,” eventually the rocking train lulls the little one to sleep. At last the train reaches its destination, and the family spends time with friends in a different city. And now, the child has a new memory to rely on should sleep prove elusive again. This comforting story creates a circle of love and protection around the child and the family, who present as Sikh. The vibrant, stylized illustrations make use of bright pinks, blues, yellows, and reds and depict everyday objects that many South Asian families will recognize. Images of the family relaxing and spending time together add to the homey atmosphere.

A soothing bedtime story sure to get readers thinking about their own favorite bedtime locations.(Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews