Dreams

by Peter Spier

Two children watch cloud formations and interpret them for themselves.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

28 pages, Hardcover

First published August 5, 1986

About the author

Peter Spier has established himself as one of the most gifted illustrators in this county. His Noah's Ark was the 1978 Caldecott Award winner, while The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night was a Caldecott Honor book in 1962. The firs two books in his widely acclaimed Mother Goose Library, London Bridge Is Falling Down! and To Market! To Market! were winner and runner-up respectively for the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. The Erie Canal and Noah's Ark both won Christopher Awards, while Gobble, Growl, Grunt received Honorable Mention in the first Children's Science Book Award program, sponsored by the New York Academy of Science.

Born and educated in Amsterdam, Mr. Spier came to New York in 1952 after serving in the Royal Dutch Navy and working for a number of years as a reporter for Elsevier's Weekly, Holland's largest magazine. He has illustrated over a hundred books and has contributed a series of murals to the H. F. Du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nearly wordless book about two children engaged in the simple act of gazing at clouds, and using their imaginations. Do kids even do this anymore? Do they even tear their eyes away from their screens long enough to look at the sky? This has a nice, nostalgic feel to it, though the inexplicably creepy ending the clouds turn into two monsters who reach ominously for the kids as they flee down the hill may give one pause as to using this as a bedtime book.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really creative book of pictures portraying clouds first in a water-colory blur then in more detail. The illustrations are fun and interesting, I especially liked the picture of many animals and the one of the dragon. My rating is lowered though because it's not a good re-"read". Once you've seen the clouds made clear, you know what to look for. I suppose you could make your own story each time, which may be fun and how I use it in the future, but as it stands, there's not enough to it to need to keep.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a little scary at the end 'cuz it has [spoiler alert] people chasing Addy and Maxwell. YOu might've thought there were words and they were actually named Addy and Maxwell, but that's just what my sister calls them because she likes her friend Maxwell.

[Pinky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of clouds and the dreams they can form.

[Shanna Gonzalez]

This is another of Spier's wonderful wordless books. In it, the two Noonan children spend a pleasant summer afternoon cloudgazing, showing each other what shapes they see in the clouds. The story is a series of changing scenes. In the first two-page spread we see the actual cloud shapes as the children gaze upward; then we turn the page and see the clouds coalesced into imaginative shapes, and the children pointing them out to one another. In our technology-driven society, this story about children exercising their imaginations together is a breath of fresh air. Throughout the book there is a gentle, tender camaraderie between the two siblings that is a refreshment in itself.

This book is unfortunately out of print, but is available in public libraries and through the used book market.

[Cana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mommy says: Another intricately illustrated book by Peter Spier. (Full disclosure: His "To Market To Market," set in my homeland of Delaware's Brandywine Valley, was one of my and my mother's very favorite childhood books, so I am strongly biased in his favor!) Two kids stare at the clouds and imagine what they are. You have to see the book to understand what happens. Only 11 words, all at the end.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very cute picture book about a boy, a girl, and two dogs watching clouds. At the end of the book there is one sentence about continuing to dream. Although I do not read many picture books, I have started to become a fan. My friend who is a reading specialist and teacher uses books like this. The illustrations are well done.

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Children watch the clouds in this nearly wordless picture book and imagine shapes and scenes.