Fantasy & Magic:

Let Your Imagination Soar

Have you ever felt excited when the wind blows strongly, and wanted to join in? The girl in Like a Windy Day wants to play the way the wind does, and she imagines many ways to do this. This is a book that will delight any reader who enjoys fantasy or flights of the imagination. Like a Windy Day is a sweet, fun book that will spark imaginative thinking and play.

Frank Asch (Happy Birthday, Moon,Mooncake, Mrs. Marlowe's Mice) and Devin Asch's (Mr. Maxwell's Mouse, Mrs. Marlowe's Mice) text is playful and fanciful, encouraging the reader to imagine how they could play like the wind. I love this idea. The text reads like a poem, with the initial idea "I want to play like a windy day" repeated several times throughout the book, and each page or spread containing one idea of how you might do this--scatter seeds, snap wet sheets. The repetition of the phrase both encourages readers to come to expect the line, and to imagine what might come next.

Read the whole review here!

Un-Brella

My rating:

Have you ever wanted to have some toasty warmth on a cold winter day, or some refreshing cold on a hot summer day? I sure have--and so has the girl in Un-Brella. Only this girl brings warmth to her winter and cold to her summer in a very magical way. In this wordless book, the young girl uses her magic un-brella to create a path of pure summer on a snowy winter day, and a path of snowy winter on a summer's day. Her un-brella only changes the weather beneath the canopy of the un-brella (and the direction it's pointed in), and only when it's open--which makes it an intimate magical playtime for the girl. So on a cold, winter day, she dresses in her bathing suit and flippers, and takes along a bottle of sunscreen--which will have readers wondering what she's doing until they see her open her un-brella and see the sun, flowers, grass, and insects that pop up. Un-Brella is a magical flight of imagination, beautifully designed, and a real feel-good book; it's pure delight. Un-Brella was nominated for the 2007 Cybils awards.

Franson piques reader curiosity by the second spread; the first spread shows the young girl peering out at the cold, snowy day, and the second spread shows her reaching for her summer outfits and choosing a bathing suit. By the next spread, reader tension and curiosity increases, as the girl is clearly ready for an outing to a beach or somewhere in the sun, and then we're faced with astonishment as the girl goes outside in the snow, dressed in only flippers, a bathing suit, and sun glasses, carrying her un-brella. This tension builds up nicely, and is immediately released into a feeling of wonder as the girl opens her un-brella and all is revealed--summer pops up beneath its canopy, warming her and the earth. There's also a great foreshadowing in the early spreads, with photos on the wall showing the snowman in the fall, spring, and summer, as well as the winter.

Franson creates a great sense of play and fun, showing the path that the girl took through the snow by the green summer path she leaves, and through having her engage in fun, magical play such as bathing in small pond with her inflatable toy, a goldfish, and a penguin that happens by, while the rest of the world is blanketed in snow. Later, winter moves into spring, then summer, and then the girl is back with her un-brella, bringing winter fun to the hot summer, creating snow angels, skating on the pond, sliding down the hill, and creating snow men, while all around her summer blossoms.

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Space Boy

My rating:

We all need some alone time, sometimes--some time away from noise and people and distractions. This is especially true for sensitive and creative people. After Nicholas hears his baby sister crying, his dog barking, and the radio blaring all at the same time, Nicholas decides that the world is too noisy. He wisely finds a way to get some quiet for himself--by taking a trip to the moon. On the moon he has a picnic, walks around, remembering the people he loves, and then goes back to find everyone more quiet and peaceful, which helps him be ready for bed. Many readers will be able to identify with Nicholas becoming overwhelmed by noise and wanting some time and space to himself--and the creative way he finds that space, through his imagination, is a wonderful way to inspire both finding quiet and using one's imagination.

Landry's (Eat Your Peas, Ivy Louise; The Snow Ghosts) story is a gentle fantasy with layers of reality and a nice sense of language and rhythm woven throughout the text. Landry uses repetition of the sounds Nicholas could hear--or not hear--three times overtly in the story, in the opening, middle, and closing, which brings a lovely sense of balance, rhythm, and rightness, and once more, less overtly, when Nicholas is thinking about the people and animals that made those sounds. The second time Landry repeats the sounds, he repeats them with a twist--what Nicholas could NOT hear. I love that twist; it underscores just how overwhelming--and important--the sounds are.

The repetition is not only pleasing and soothing, but also works well as a catalyst throughout the story, and is an emotional thread that Nicholas (and the reader) respond to--first as an irritant or overwhelming noise, then as something he can't hear when he has his peace and quiet, then as positive memories that make him want to go back home, and finally, back home, as quiet and peaceful, positive once more.

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My rating:

All Billy wants for his birthday is a bucket. His parents try to talk him out of it, but when he won't change his mind, they give in and take him to Buckets-R-Us, where Billy picks out a very specific bucket. The store assistant and his parents can't see anything different about it, but Billy can. He knows it's special. And when he gets home and fills it with water, the reader sees he was right. Each time Billy peers into the bucket, he sees an underwater scene. He tells his parents, but they don't believe him. Even worse, they tease him about it, suggesting that they'll use his bucket for mundane things. Billy forcefully tells them that whatever they do, they must not use his bucket. But in the morning when he wakes up, his bucket isn't there. Billy runs outside, only to find that his father has emptied a gigantic whale onto the street and cars. Billy simply says "I told you not to borrow my bucket." Billy's Bucket is a wonderfully imaginative, magical, and feel-good fantasy.

Gray (Eat Your Peas, You Do!) creates sympathy and empathy for Billy in the very first spread as his parents try to talk him out of what he really wants, suggesting other, more expensive things that many kids would jump at--a computer game, a bike, running shoes--and belittling his wish for a bucket. Gray notches up the sympathy through having Billy's parents laugh at him and tease him when he tells them what he sees, refusing to believe him. Young readers may enjoy Billy's seriousness and earnestness of what is truly fantastical, and root for him, believing in his underwater world along with him.

Read the whole review here!

Dear Fish
by Chris Gall
Little, Brown & Company (May 2006)
ISBN-10: 0316058475, ISBN-13: 978-0316058476

My rating:

Peter Alan goes to the beach with his family, and throws a message in a bottle into the ocean, inviting the fish to come visit him. And visit him they do, the town suddenly becoming overpowered by fish and ocean dwellers of many different kinds and sizes doing impossible things--cat fish eating the lawn, puffer fish puffing up and being used as balloons, an octopus taking over the beauty saloon. It gets so out of hand that Peter Alan has to write another note, encouraging the fish to go back home--and he's made to promise that he won't ever speak to them, write to them, or signal to them again. But next time Peter and his family go to the beach, they find a note from the fish waiting for them, inviting the family to visit them under the ocean--and so they do.

Gall (America the Beautiful) weaves fantasy and humor together to create an entertaining adventure. . . .

Read the whole review here!

Rainstorm
by Barbara Lehman
Houghton Mifflin (April 2007)
ISBN-10: 0618756396, ISBN-13: 978-0618756391

My rating:

What happens when you're lonely and alone, and even the weather seems dreary? In Rainstorm, the lonely boy discovers new friends through magic—a key that opens a treasure chest that leads down into a winding tunnel, up some stairs, and into a different part of the world—an island where the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and children are waiting to play with him.

Lehman's signature wordless fantasy (The Red Book, Museum Trip) doesn't disappoint. While this book doesn't feel quite as magical as The Red Book, it delights and brings a sense of magic, hope, and friendship. This is a great book that can give readers a sense of hope, belonging, and a feeling that they aren't alone. . . .

Read the whole review here!

The Zoo
by Suzy Lee
Kane/Miller (March 2007)
ISBN-10: 1933605286, ISBN-13: 978-1933605289

My rating:

I went to the zoo with my mom and dad.
We visited the monkey house,
and Bear Hill.

--The Zoo by Suzy Lee, p. 4-7.

This almost wordless book turns a girl's dull day into one bursting with color and happiness.

The story is not really in the text. The text feels more like a brief list of events that don't even begin to describe what actually happens than a story. . . .

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Flotsam
by David Wiesner
Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin, (September 2006)
ISBN-10: 0618194576, ISBN-13: 978-0618194575

My rating:

In this wordless fantasy a scientific-minded, inquisitive boy who's studying bugs and crabs at the beach comes upon an old underwater camera that is washed upon him in a wave. The boy examines the camera, finds the film, and gets it developed, only to find a series of extraordinary photos—a mechanical fish swimming under water within a school of live fish; an octopus reading a story to other octopi and fish in an underwater living room, complete with sofas, lamps, and tables; a tortoise swimming with a tiny shell city on its back, and more. Even more wonderful is the last photo the boy uncovers—a photo of a modern-day girl holding a photo of a boy who is holding up a photo of another child who is holding up a photo of another child—and on and on it goes.

Wiesner (Tuesday) has created a magical, mind-opening fantasy. . . .

Read the whole review here!

Imagine a Day
by Sarah L. Thomson, illustrated by Rob Gonsalves
Atheneum/Simon & Schuster (January 2005)
ISBN-10: 0689852193, ISBN-13: 978-0689852190

My rating:

imagine a day . . . . . . when you can dive down through branches
or swim up to the sun.
imagine a day . . .
. . . when grace and daring are all we need
to build a bridge.
imagine a day . . .
. . . when your wishes float
on a puff of air
to summon back the blue.

--Imagine a Day, by Sarah L. Thomson, illustrated by Rob Gonsalves, p. 1-6.

Thomson and Gonsalves (Imagine a Night) encourage the reader to imagine a day when she can do incredible, fantastical things, and that the world will respond in kind. The book is inspiring, encouraging the reader to believe in the good inside us all, and in the possibility of the human spirit and of magic.

Thomson's beautiful, imaginative text speaks to the wonder that children (and some adults) can see the world with. The text moves between magical possibilities and soulful ones, but all of them speak to opening up the heart, mind, and soul. . . .

Read the whole review here!

Clara and Asha
by Eric Rohmann
Roaring Brook Press (August 2005)
ISBN: 1596430311, ISBN-13: 9781596430310

My rating:

"Clara! Time for bed," my mom calls. But I'm not sleepy, so I open my window . . .
. . . and wait for Asha.
We met in the park.
And I brought Asha home.

--Clara and Asha, by Eric Rohmann, p. 2-7.

In this delightful fantasy, a stone fish comes to life and becomes a young girl's best friend. Asha, a giant fish, flies in through Clara's bedroom window when Clara's getting ready for bed. Clara tells us how she met Asha in the park (when Asha was part of a statue), and how Asha came home with her (following her through trees), played in the tub, and was introduced to all her stuffed-toy friends. Then Clara blows some soap bubbles, and floats up on one, out into the night sky with Asha, where they fly together until Clara's mom calls her in to bed. This is a beautiful, uplifting book with a feel-good reminder that we can be free in our dreams. . . .

Read the whole review here!

• Learning to Fly by Sebastian Meschenmoser
• The Red Book by Barbara Lehman
• There's NO Such Thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent
• The Red Tree by Shaun Tan