Imagine a Place [Hardcover]

Sarah L. Thomson (Author), Rob Gonsalves (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2008 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

If you can imagine a place,

you can go there.

Imagine a place that makes you feel as free as a bird. Imagine a place where getting there is worth whatever it takes. Imagine a place that makes you feel like it's always been your destination. Imagine a place made out of pure imagination.

Imagine a Place is a gorgeous companion to the critically acclaimed Imagine a Night and Imagine a Day, and reminds us that imagination is powerful enough to take us anywhere we want to go. And Rob Gonsalves's exquisitely conceived paintings leave you in awe...of his imagination.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2–6—The creators of Imagine a Night (2003) and Imagine a Day (2005, both S & S) offer another book to ponder and pore over. Readers are again encouraged to stretch their imaginations and question perspective and perception. Painterly acrylic panoramas, supported by lyrical text, are packed with skewed realities. On the title page, an image of a cathedral's interior transmutes into a city skyline as the pointed arches become silhouetted skyscrapers and the mottled stonework of ancient walls, buttressed ceilings, and floor become the rippled surface of the surrounding harbor and stratocumulus clouds. On another spread, the text reads, "Imagine a place…/where water is solid,/light is liquid,/sky a frozen river/flowing under your feet," and the illustration shows skaters gliding across a nighttime river, their lanterns reflecting the moonlight, and snow banks that mirror the clouds above. The sometimes esoteric text and sophisticated art play with literality: houseboats are depicted as brick-and-stone manors in giant skiffs, their verdant lawns enclosed by bow-and-stern-curved fences. This is not magical realism, but shifting realism—magical, to be sure, but not in the high-falutin', metaphysical sense. This is the magic of positive and negative space, of expectation and experimentation, of creativity and conversion. Readers will want to look, look again, discuss, and imagine.—Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Rob Gonsalves grew up drawing images from his imagination, but the Surrealist movement, in particular the works of Remedios Varo and René Magritte, also influenced his work. After he graduated from college, Mr. Gonsalves worked as an architect, and as a painter of trompe l'oeil murals and theater sets. After receiving an enthusiastic response at the 1990 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, he began painting full time, and his work continues to be highly sought after. His first picture book was Imagine a Night, and he currently lives in rural Ontario, Canada.

Sarah L. Thomson's other books include The Dragon's Son, which was named one of the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror books of 2001 by Voice of Youth Advocates; Stars and Stripes; and Imagine a Night. She lives in Maine.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416968024
• ISBN-13: 978-1416968023
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 11.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Mystery & Wonders

More About the Author

Sarah L. Thomson is the author of Stars and Stripes: The Story of the American Flag, a Nebraska Golden Sower Award finalist; all the Wildlife Conservation Society I Can Read Books, including Amazing Tigers!, winner of an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award; and What Lincoln Said, written with "admirable simplicity" (ALA Booklist). Sarah lives in Portland, Maine.