Editorial Reviews

 A child reflects on dreaming via enigmatic first-person musings in this artfully produced volume translated from the Dutch. Opening lines offer a questioning framing as a pale-skinned, long-haired child laments drifting off before they can see where dreams come from. The following pages describe otherworldly visions, which are amplified by Lada’s intricately wrought b&w sketches, spot colored via vellum overlays. On one page, a snail atop a human face emerges from the child’s comforter, which is adorned, via a transparent page, with blue flowers and vines. On another, a cloaked stag looks on as the child luxuriates in verdant green clothes whose layers “shine like the shell of a beetle.” A labyrinth dotted with objects from these meanderings marks the transition to waking, and as the child proceeds to “turn over the sheet of darkness,/ and let in the light of the world,” color and sunshine distinguish the concluding pages. It’s a ruminative telling that aptly captures the strangeness of dreaming and awakening. Ages 6–10. (Apr.)

                                     

                                                                      Publishers Weekly            2023-01-25

 “  Every night, dreams lull me to sleep. / I try to stay awake to see where they come from, / but I always drift off….”

A nameless, light-skinned child with long dark hair takes readers on a tour of their dreams in this translation from Dutch. Much like in a dream, there is no continuous plot or narrative, but Lada’s gentle prose floats between reveries about beautiful clothes, the sea, and a rainy evening, all depicted with naïve illustrations that appear to be rendered in pencil. Forest animals in human clothes, friendly fish, and smiling children, most of whom have skin the white of the page, all welcome readers to the maze of dreamland in hazy shades of gray with a few pops of color. We see the narrator floating above the world on a feather and wandering through a garden. When the narrator winds their way back to the waking world, the visuals switch to full-color images with a watercolorlike look. The child now appears rested and confident: “I look the world in the eye / and…I am myself.” Ephemeral imagery and a sleepy pace will surely bring only good dreams to tired young readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A welcoming wind down. (Picture book. 2-7)

     

                                                                                              Kirkus Reviews

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