In My Dreams

A child reflects on dreaming via enigmatic first-person musings in this artfully produced volume translated from the Dutch. Opening lines offer a questioning framing as a pale-skinned, long-haired child laments drifting off before they can see where dreams come from. The following pages describe otherworldly visions, which are amplified by Lada’s intricately wrought b&w sketches, spot colored via vellum overlays. On one page, a snail atop a human face emerges from the child’s comforter, which is adorned, via a transparent page, with blue flowers and vines. On another, a cloaked stag looks on as the child luxuriates in verdant green clothes whose layers “shine like the shell of a beetle.” A labyrinth dotted with objects from these meanderings marks the transition to waking, and as the child proceeds to “turn over the sheet of darkness,/ and let in the light of the world,” color and sunshine distinguish the concluding pages. It’s a ruminative telling that aptly captures the strangeness of dreaming and awakening. Ages 6–10. (Apr.)