bedtime · Ages 6-8

The Pillow Map to the Place Called Almost Asleep

A child traces hills and valleys in a pillowcase and slowly travels from fidgeting to the gentle edge of sleep.

The whole story

1. At bedtime, Juniper flipped her pillow from one side to the other. Her toes tapped the blanket. Sleep stayed somewhere far away.

2. Juniper turned the pillowcase over. One long wrinkle rose beneath her finger. Another dipped beside it. A map had appeared.

3. She called the first ridge a hill. The dip beside it was a valley. Juniper placed her finger at the beginning of the journey.

4. But the map was too wrinkly. Juniper’s finger bumped and jumped. She tried again, faster, and the hills tangled into a knot.

5. Juniper held her hand still. The knot softened into a little valley. She began again, this time as slowly as a settling feather.

6. Her finger climbed one hill and rested. It slipped into one valley and rested. Each quiet pause made the room feel larger.

7. At the last valley, Juniper’s finger grew still. Her eyes opened once, then halfway, then hardly at all. Almost Asleep was near.

8. The pillowcase held its hills. Juniper held her place. Almost Asleep was not far away at all. It was the quiet valley beneath her hand.

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