The Sleeping Gypsy Author:Mordicai Gerstein Caldecott medalist Mordicai Gerstein writes and illustrates an elegant and beautiful story inspired by the characters in Henri Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy. A girl, alone in the desert, lies on the sand and sleeps. But she is not alone for long. A lizard, a rabbit, a turtle and other animals scrutinize her when a lion leaps into the scene and claim... more »s her for his own. A silhouette approaches from the distance. He introduces himself as Henri Rousseau, the dreamer of this dream, who plans to paint a picture of it. The animals pose for the artist but criticize his work with comments like you've made my nose too big. So the artist removes complainers one by one from the picture until only the girl and the lion remain.« less