Reviewed by Lee Ashford for Readers' Favorite

“Jasper’s Sleepyhead Adventures” by J. Adams is a cute story about young Jasper the Dinosaur, and the adventuresome dreams he has in his bed at night. While his mother is tucking him in for the night after his bath, he tells her, “Trevor said something today, and I got mad”. Whatever Trevor said is not revealed yet. In the meantime, Jasper falls asleep, only to dream he is on a raft in the ocean, surrounded by red and blue birds. Then a pirate ship takes him captive! Using only his wit and wisdom (it IS his dream, after all), Jasper escapes from the pirates and swims to a nearby island. There he meets a yellow dinosaur named Alex who tells him Trevor is looking for him. After a run-in with some mischievous monkeys, Jasper climbs over a high mountain pass through the snow, toward a castle he sees in the distance. There he rescues a purple “damsel in distress” dinosaur, which turns out to be Trevor’s sister. Finally Trevor comes tromping over to where Jasper is, shaking the earth as he comes. Trevor turns out to be a BIG red dinosaur, who asks Jasper, “How are you, buddy?” In the end it is all a big misunderstanding, and when Jasper wakes up in the morning he is not mad at Trevor any more.

This brightly colorful story takes its young audience through a circuitous series of adventures to hold their attention until it can teach them not to jump to conclusions, not to lose their temper, not to get mad at something they just misinterpreted, and to communicate with their friends when they don’t quite understand something one of them said. The many-colored dinosaurs might also be a way to teach children to accept others regardless of skin color. The imaginative dream world in which Jasper spends his night is one that will fascinate any child, while the lessons are well worth taking the long way around to get to them. This is a book which should be on your child’s book shelf, if only to stimulate their own imaginations.