From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2. A mother sits by her daughter's bed knitting "dreams and lullabies" on "silver singing needles." But the verses here do not sing; instead, they meander about as the girl, along with her rocking horse and toy rabbit, visit the dreams of a doll, a bear, a cave, a kitten, a ship, and more. The rhyming pattern is erratic and sometimes disappears altogether. The dreamy, detailed watercolor illustrations meander, too. The tiger, "dreaming of jungles," sleeps among the ferns and dandelions of a deciduous forest. The repeated refrain, "What do you find as the yarns unwind?" is not reflected in the illustrations. Sometimes the child and her toy animals are huge, and sometimes tiny. It's true that dreams can be like that, but such illogical inconsistency is unsettling in a picture book. There is the seed of a lovely book here, but it doesn't quite come to fruition.?Sue Norris, Rye Free Reading Room, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ages 4^-6. The blanket that a mother is knitting for her young daughter is the inspiration for a magical dream adventure in which the objects depicted on the blanket reveal their wishes. Each turn of the page is another stop on the journey: a doll "dreams of drinking tea with all the friends she has gone to see"; the moon wants "a mile of space and no thin clouds to cover her face"; a rainbow "longs to stay fixed in its colors for one whole day." The gentle, rhyming text is brought to life by Brown's elaborate watercolor scenes. Filled with lots of wonderful details, they depict a variety of interesting locations and seasonal variations, providing opportunities for discussion. In a story time or classroom setting, children could be asked at the end of the story to imagine the secret wish of a favorite object or pet.
Lauren Peterson
