DREAMING OF YOU

Animals apparently dream about all sorts of fun, lively activities peculiar to their natures—but especially of spending time frolicking with children. Little ones are encouraged to engage in just those reveries to lull themselves to sweet slumber.

In gentle, lilting rhymes filled with pleasing alliteration and assonance and that mostly scan beautifully, young readers and listeners discover, for example, that “kittens are dreaming of lapping fresh milk” and “of snoozing with you” and that “chipmunks are dreaming of racing and chasing you, / cheerfully playing at hide-and-go-seek.” Double-page spreads feature softly colored mixed-media illustrations depicting, in addition to the aforementioned animals, other familiar creatures, including turtles, fish, robins, horses, rabbits, and puppies, each cavorting in its own special way—and “dreaming of you.” Sweetly imaginative, linguistically rich, and featuring enlivening vocabulary with lots of active verbs and new and interesting nouns and adjectives, this offers a fresh entry in the familiar canon of bedtime reads. Children will be delighted by the various animals’ activities and the notion that feathered, furred, and scaly sleepers like themselves enjoy nothing better than dreaming of kids.

A delightful answer to the oft-asked question, do animals dream? (Picture book. 3-6)