IN MY DREAMS I CAN FLY

A simple story spreads like frosting over weighty themes. It’s a classic architecture, which allows for slicing as deep as readers can handle, and Hasler works it straightforwardly. On the surface, she presents five friends living underground for the winter months. Two worms, a grub, a caterpillar and a beetle show each other their digs and their supplies. They entertain each other; they witness strange happenings that create suspense and one of them behaves selfishly, which will come back to bite him, but all is patted smooth when Spring reveals her secrets. Peel back the layers and readers will find issues of survival, change and communal responsibility, as well as the importance of dreams, especially when they may be intuitions of the future. The prose keeps a steady beat to the story’s voice—“Every third evening, the friends played cards together in the grub’s home among the roots”—letting readers invest them with emotion, and Bhend’s jewel-like artwork treads the line between cozy and precarious. If no new ground has been broken, it has certainly been turned with discernment. (Picture book. 3-8)