Just a Dream [Hardcover]

Chris Van Allsburg (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Young Walter litters and refuses to sort trash for recycling, until he dreams of an overcrowded and polluted future which terrifies him into taking care of the earth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two-time Caldecott Medalist Van Allsburg reaches a new pinnacle of excellence in both illustration and storytelling in his latest work. Since his first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, appeared just over a decade ago, he has spun many strange and fantastic modern fairy tales, all of which spill over the edge of reality into magnificent dreamscapes. Here Van Allsburg introduces Walter, a boy who imagines the future as a marvelous time, with tiny airplanes that can be parked on the roof of your house and robots that take care of all your work for you. In the present, however, Walter is a litterbug who can't be bothered to sort the trash for recycling and laughs at Rose, the girl next door, because she receives a sapling for her birthday. One night, when Walter goes to sleep, his bed travels to the future. But he finds neither tiny airplanes nor robots, only piles of trash covering the street where he used to live, acres and acres of stumps where forests used to stand, rows and rows of great smokestacks belching out acrid smoke, and many other environmental nightmares. Van Allsburg renders each of these chilling scenarios in elaborate, superbly executed two-page spreads that echo the best work of M. C. Escher and Winsor McKay (creator of the Little Nemo comic strips). Walter and his bed land right in the middle of the action in each of these hallucinatory paintings, heightening the visual impact and forcing a hard look at the devastation surrounding Van Allsburg's protagonist. An awakened Walter, jolted by his dream, changes his ways: he begins to sort the trash and, like Rose, plants a tree for his birthday. Then his bed takes him to a different future, one where people tend their lawns with powerless mowers and where the trees he and Rose have planted stand tall and strong beneath a blue sky. Not only are Just a Dream 's illustrations some of the most striking Van Allsburg has ever created, but the text is his best yet. Van Allsburg has sacrificed none of the powerful, otherworldly spirit that suffuses his earlier works, and he has taken a step forward by bringing this spirit to bear on a vitally important issue. His fable builds to an urgent plea for action as it sends a rousing message of hope. All ages.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-5-- Walter, an environmental ignoramus of a 10 year old, is careless or scornful of such elementary actions as recycling or tree planting. One nightmarish evening, however, he visits a future where his daydreams of technological paradise are demolished. Instead, there is merely a horrifically exacerbated continuation of today's eco-problems: landfills, expressways, smog, lifeless oceans, and vanished wilderness. Walter awakens reformed, and is rewarded with another dream: the future redeemed. As the story exhibits Van Allsburg's "signature" character (a child free of adult supervision) and plot (the dream-vision), so the pictures display the hallmarks of the artist's style: bird's- and worm's-eye perspectives, dramatic lighting effects, some geometric simplification of forms. Wordless double-page spreads alternate with pages of text and small vignettes. The abstract beauty of the images produces a curious tension with the idea of a barren and ugly future; the stylized orderliness of the art is itself eerily disturbing. That this depicts the nightmare of a child may excuse some inconsistencies (in an utterly ruined environment would trees still be cut down for toothpicks?), but the real disappointment comes at the end. Walter's utopian vision is an unchildlike nostalgia trip: a suburban reprise of the '40s. Such a sentimental and parochially narrow vision of a future for a privileged few is the chief failure of this well-meaning effort. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (October 29, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395533082
• ISBN-13: 978-0395533086
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Van Allsburg is the winner of two Caldecott Medals, for Jumanji and The Polar Express, as well as the recipient of a Caldecott Honor Book for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. The author and illustrator of numerous picture books for children, he has also been awarded the Regina Medal for lifetime achievement in children's literature. In 1982, Jumanji won the National Book Award and in 1996, it was made into a popular feature film. Chris Van Allsburg was formerly an instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife and two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Children's Environmental Literature Classic!, July 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Just a Dream (Hardcover)

This is my FAVORITE children's environmental book. Chris Van Allsburg's illustrations are fabulous, as always, and greatly add to the drama of the story. I am an environmental educator and read this book to students (5th-6th grade) at the end of every week at outdoor school. This is a great book to read aloud, especially because of the way the illustrations are separate from the text. What I love about this book is that it is in the end very hopeful. Walter's first dreams of the future show a world of great environmental problems, based on his actions of not caring in the present; but when he changes his ways, the future changes also. I like to emphasize this when reading it to students: The future is not written yet, but we are creating it every day with the choices we make. This is definitely a children's environmental literature classic, along with Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" and Lynne Cherry's "The Great Kapok Tree," but is even better for older children.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YOU MUST OWN THIS BOOK, November 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Just a Dream (Hardcover)

AT EIGHTEEN THIS IS STILL AT THE TOP OF MY "YOU MUST OWN THIS BOOK" LIST. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THE GENERATIONS TO COME LEARN OF WHAT ENVIRONMENTAL NIGHTMARES ARE GOING ON AROUND THEM AND WHAT THEY CAN DO TO HELP. WE TELL CHILDREN WHAT THEY CAN DO WHEN IT'S TOO LATE AND WHEN THEY HAVE GROWN TOO APATHETIC. THIS BOOK IS AN EXCELLENT TOOL FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS TO HELP PREVENT THEIR CHILDREN FROM FALLING INTO THIS TRAP. VAN ALLSBURG'S AMAZING WORDS AND ILLISTARATIONS WILL KEEP ANYONE SPELLBOUND AMD CATALYSE A DESIRE TO HELP. WE MUST ENGAGE THOSE WHO ARE SOON TO BE THE ADULTS OF OUR SOCIETY IN ACTIONS THAT WILL MAKE FOR A BETTER, CLEANER, AND HEALTIER EARTH; THIS BOOK WILL HELP!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent illustrations complimented by an amazing story., April 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Just a Dream (Hardcover)

As a second grade teacher, I was able to teach the importance of recycling and respecting mother earth with this story. The children were captivated by the book and many picked up trash later on the playground. I have even noticed less trash and more recycled goods in the classroom. I recommend this book for children of all ages and even some adults!