The Marvelous Journey Through the Night

``Every night you start on a marvelous journey. Without luggage, without passport, without money.'' The author/illustrator of The Pearl , Friends and Seven Wild Pigs delivers a rather odd discourse on the pleasures of Sleep, depicted here as an elfin figure carrying a ``moon-lantern'' on a fishing pole. Some of the images have a quirky appeal--Heine's animals, as always, are whimsical, and fans will recognize old friends from his other books drifting into the ``paradise of dreams.'' Others, however, such as a nurse holding a giant hypodermic needle and a beefy butcher holding a cleaver over a goose's neck, hardly seem the stuff of pleasant dreams. Although this strange book is not as gentle as Heine's usual fare, it will perhaps please some youngsters nonetheless--especially those not quite ready to surrender to sleep. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)