A bedtime story that will make sleep come easily

It may be difficult for your child to catch the train to Dreamville without a bedtime story. If so, “How Does Sleep Come?” by Jeanne C. Blackmore is a story she’ll want you to read.

The book tells the story of Jacob, who knows it’s bedtime but isn’t very sleepy. His eyes are wide open.

Still, he climbs into bed and his mommy tucks the covers around him tight. It’s dark. Jacob should be sleeping, but he isn’t ready yet. That’s when he asks Mama, “How does sleep come?”

She imagines a quiet, snowy night filled with snowflakes falling softly. Sleep sometimes comes quietly, she tells Jacob as he snuggles under the covers, his eyelids sagging just a little.

Jacob’s mom thinks for another minute — about a silent night along the water and tells him that sleep sometimes comes creeping in like fog. She tells him that it’s big and wraps itself around you.

Jacob listens, and yawns. He stretches and rolls over.

His mom tells him that sleep can come in like a cloud in the sky, just floating along with nothing to say. You can’t hear clouds, and you can’t call them to come to your house. Sleep comes like that — just like floating along on a breeze.

Jacob is still awake, but he starts to curl up under the warm blankets. Maybe he is a little sleepy after all.

Sleep comes comfortably, Jacob’s mother says, like a kitten curled up in front of a fire, purring happily, and then snoozing on its pillow. Sleep comes softly, like a butterfly’s wing brushing gently on the petals of a tiny, white flower.

And now Jacob is very sleepy. He closes his eyes and starts to dream.

Can you guess what he dreams about?

Blackmore writes sparingly, using very few words but lots of simple ideas that little sleepyheads won’t have any trouble grasping. Kids who love to ask “just one more question” will readily identify with young Jacob.

But while the story in this book is perfect for nap or bedtime reading, I thought that the illustrations by Elizabeth Sayles are the real appeal. Done in lush, soft, shadowy blues and grays, Sayles’s artwork is quietly soothing, like a calming backrub. They even made this adult long for some shut-eye.

Meant for kids ages 3 to 5, I think a quiet 2-year-old might enjoy this book, so find it and keep it around. When it’s time for a bedtime story, “How Does Sleep Come?” will surely come in handy.

“How Does Sleep Come?” by Jeanne C. Blackmore [32 pages, 2012, $16.99].

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.