Sam Saves the Night

August 15, 2019
A girl discovers a spectral world of jovial abandon when all she wanted was a cure for somnambulism. Sam is a sleepwalker--has been for most of her 13 years. The bully at her middle school constantly makes fun of her sleep-deprived state. Lately, her nightly escapades are getting more and more dangerous (think: waking-up-in-a-tree-with-a-running-power-tool level of danger), so her anxiety-ridden mother takes her to an unorthodox specialist. His treatment works, and Sam can finally get a good night's sleep--but she's shocked to discover that now her soul separates from her body as she slumbers! Guided by another "detached" person, the oh-so-cute Byron, she learns about the many other young SleepWakers, who are divided into like-minded subgroups, with one that threatens to ruin the nighttime freedom for the rest. The rosy moral lesson: Bullies have stories, too, and, once seen and forgiven, they will turn into unlikely friends. While this can be true, the book's bullies--one at school, one at nighttime, and several others--come across as so mean that something more than apologetic words are really needed as an apology. Aside from Byron's light brown skin and an Indian tertiary character, the remaining cast is presumed white. The fantastical plot tries to keep one foot planted in realism, but hokey dialogue and the flippant treatment of the fundamentally unsettling premise throw it off balance. Just too bizarre. (Fiction. 8-13)

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September 16, 2019
Sam, 12, is a lifelong sleepwalker who has sleep-sorted recycling and even sleep-built a tree house. Her behavior has prompted her family to move six times in 10 years, and family history—Sam’s father died while sleepwalking off a bridge—makes her mother even more desperate for a solution. Then they find an unconventional specialist, Dr. Fletcher, who detaches Sam’s consciousness from her body, a procedure that allows Sam’s body to slumber at night while her soul “accomplishes its purpose.” Sam becomes a SleepWaker, part of a large community of others who “show who they really are in the dark,” each joining a group of like-minded Wakers. But the community is under attack by “soul-napping” MeanDreams, led by school golden girl Madalynn, who shows her true malicious colors at night. Though Simpson’s debut can feel aggressively off-the-wall—the characters skew wacky and the plot is packed with over-the-top moments (it opens on its protagonist sleep-wielding a power saw)—Sam is realistically flawed as she deals with bullying and finding her place in the world. Filled with surprising twists, this series kick-off underscores essential truths about finding one’s unique spirit. Ages 8–12.

August 1, 2019
Grades 4-6 Thirteen-year-old Samantha (Sam) faces bullies on both corporeal and noncorporeal planes after a quack scientist turns her (and other classmates) from a lifelong sleepwalker into a SleepWaker, able to separate her consciousness from her chronically exhausted physical body and leave the latter behind to rest. The separation brings out hidden or frustrated character traits in Wakers: those fearful by day become wildly reckless Extremes, while repressed performers band together as Broadways who belt out show tunes. More cogently, Sam's dazzling, charismatic, seemingly angelic schoolmate Madalynn is, by night, a terrifying bully who can not only somehow bespell Wakers but actually possess their unconscious physical bodies to further her cruel schemes. Simpson needs to work a little more on her premise (or at least her language) as she classifies all of the Wakers into simplistic tribes, but her quick-paced tale is lightened by snarky dialogue, driven by young people surrounded by caricatured adults, and features a fiendishly clever, truly scary mean girl. In the end, clues open the door to sequels. Nighty night!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)