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PICTURE BOOKS
Roumiguière, Cécile

Nasla's Dream

32 pp. | Princeton Architectural Press | September, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-61689-950-9 $17.95
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Simone Rea. On the first spread of this surrealistic picture book (originally published in France) we see a yellow circle set high on the page against a shadowy black oil-painted background. The text reads: "Nasla is not asleep. Lying in her bed, she sees a yellow dot above the wardrobe. A little eye, like an opening in the dark night." Turning the page, we meet Nasla, with a swoop of orange-red hair, sitting astride a small cloud looking up at where she'd asked her father to put her stuffed animals and broken dolls, having felt too old to sleep with toys. She wonders what would happen if the dot were to grow, and the following spread shows an enormous moon filling a room that has red walls (matching Nasla's hair). Everything Nasla wonders is both intriguing and potentially ominous: "What if it becomes big enough to swallow her whole?" ­Roumiguière's text explores how a young person copes with the decision to put ­childish things aside, and Rea conveys ­Nasla's inventive thoughts with vibrant color and surreal effects, such as a wavy blue floor. The text and pictures play back and forth with real things (Nasla's stuffed animals) and wondered things (including a wild ­rumpus–like parade), leaving lots of room for child ­readers to interpret and imagine for themselves.
Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

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