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Imagine A Night    by Sarah L. Thomson & Rob Gonsalves Amazon.com order for
Imagine A Night
by Sarah L. Thomson
Order:  USA  Can
Atheneum, 2003 (2003)
Hardcover

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* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

After being entranced by Imagine A Day (by the same author/illustrator pair) I was determined to lay my hands on their previous Imagine A Night. Both picture books are outstanding, offering an Escher-like journey through a child's imagination.

Sarah L. Thomson's writing is lyrical. She begins 'imagine a night ... / ... when snow white sheets grow crisp and cold, / and someone whispers, / "Follow me."' The words are accompanied by Rob Gonsalves' enchanting painting of snow and trees, where the snow is divided into glistening white double beds. Next we're invited to soar 'over a quilt of fields and forests', where the picture morphs from bedroom quilts to the quilted fields that Peter Pan and Wendy would have seen, while flying high. On goes this venture into the magical world of the imagination. I especially love the second to last imagine - '...when the space between words / becomes like the space between trees: / wide enough / to wander in', where the picture has the edges of a wooden floor morph into forest as a family reads together by the fireside.

Imagine A Night and Imagine A Day are extraordinary picture books. They stimulate kids' imaginations, while reminding adults of the child's eye view of life and bringing those flights of fancy back to us for just a little while.

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