The leader of indie-rock band the Shins is making his literary debut with a children’s book coming next year.
Random House Studio will publish James Mercer’s Book of Dreams, illustrated by Jacob Escobedo, next winter, the press announced in a news release. It calls the book a “celebration of dreams as powerful, imaginative stories that help kids understand their feelings, fears, and inner lives.”
Mercer founded the Shins in 1996 as a side project to his band Flake Music. The Shins released their first album, Oh, Inverted World, in 2001; the singles “New Slang” and “Caring Is Creepy” became indie-rock hits. They went on to release albums including Chutes Too Narrow, Port of Morrow, and Heartworms.
Book of Dreams, says Random House Studio, is based on conversations Mercer had with his daughters. It calls the book “a lyrical exploration of the magical, mysterious, and emotionally rich worlds children enter while they sleep. Told in rhyming verse and paired with Escobedo’s surreal and immersive artwork—painted using gouache and acrylic and printed with a fluorescent pink ink— the book journeys through dreams in all their emotional color, from the silly and surreal to the frightening and profound.”
Mercer said in a statement, “Dreams were something my daughters and I talked about all the time. I wanted this book to capture the feeling of moving through those strange nighttime worlds where anything can happen and emotions feel larger than life. Working with Jacob brought the whole thing into a place that felt even more vivid and alive than I originally pictured.”
Mercer plans to release a new lullaby inspired by the book, which is slated for publication on March 2, 2027.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
