TELL ME YOUR DREAMS

Talk-show host Kloots’ first children’s book is an imaginative bedtime book about dreams and a tribute to her late husband.

A blond, light-skinned mother cuddles at bedtime with her light-skinned child, who has short, curly blond hair. From the toys scattered in the room and the bedding, it’s clear this tot loves vehicles of all sorts, so it’s not surprising that when mom guides the child to talk about where their dreams will take them, a garbage truck leaps to mind. It’s green, just like their toy one, and their father, a man with light skin, brown hair, and some beard scruff, is driving. As the duo go for a ride, suddenly the truck morphs into a plane that they fly through a rainbow and land on a beach, where they make a train that they drive into the ocean and then back home again. The mother mostly narrates this adventure, with the child’s brief sound effects, comments, and “I love you, Dada,” in a colored font. The text can be a bit stiff, the language workmanlike. Willmore’s mixed media, pencil, and digital cartoon illustrations are full of bright colors and imaginative details, though the humans are rather wooden, their mouths wide open on almost every page. The only evidence of the father is in the child’s imagination/dreams. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

This fails to stand out on the crowded bedtime/dreamland shelf.