Spring 2019, Wild Readers 5 discussion

In Nightlights by Lorena Alvarez Gomes, we follow a girl named Sandy with a very vivid imagination. She dreams about creatures and dreams and then when she wakes up she draws them. However, she creates a menacing creature named Morfie. Her two worlds intermingle in her mind and it creates such a beautiful graphic novel. The entire novel is more of the picture book style because of the vivid drawing but it is just so pretty you can’t put it down. Sandy, eventually gets stuck in her drawing world, where that is all you see and you must find your way out. It really reminded me of a modern Alice in Wonderland in a way. I think that they put the theme of a girl facing her fears and adding a little mystery to it. The author has said that the story is created from her experiences in her home town and the air around the Catholic School she attended. Knowing this I can see how she really poured her heart out there and made her past into a vibrant story for kids to all love. I didn’t have a favorite character in this novel, I was just really taken by the art in the book and spent most of my time staring at it without words.