FISHING FOR A DREAM

Kiesler’s dreamy acrylic paintings accompany a collection of lullabies with sea-faring themes. From the traditional to the contemporary, the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Eve Merriam, Rudyard Kipling, and others appear alongside traditional poems from France, Ireland, Scotland, Greece, and Hawaii. Sleepy images evoke their own rhythm of the sea, whether lapping waves, magical flying fish, or sailing ships. Each savory painting holds a blush of tenderness—in a cloud, a shoreline, a fish’s eye, the crook of a mother’s arm” stirring childhood sentiment. Earthbound seascapes make way for the particularly lovely flights of fancy: moon, stars, and wind personified as maidens with straw hats, scarves accompanying Jean Jaszi’s “Lullaby,” and a young boy’s bed flying over rooftops for Stevenson’s “My Bed Is a Boat.” Ideal for lap-sharing, parents and children may discover in these pages their own starry nights together before bedtime. (Picture book/poetry. 2-5)