Although it's often a struggle to get kids in my library to pick up picture books after about age four or five (which is a whole different discussion) sometimes I'll pick up a special book for that rare older child who doesn't care whether or not they're reading a picture book.

This fanciful book takes readers on an amazing, imaginative journey through a series of islands. The text meanders through the book, including both descriptions and writing prompts in the discussions of the various islands. Readers will travel from the Sweet Sea Islands to the Desert of Lost and Found, from the Sea Forest to the Sleeping Whale. Finally, if you make it through the Labyrinth of Desires, you make it to the top of a mountain, "There they can wish for anything they want."

The real draw of this isn't the text though, it's the art. Delicate drawings create whole imaginary worlds to explore and spark new ideas. One spread, the Jungle of Changing Spots, features animals who change their coats at every sneeze. It shows a rainbow frog with white stars, a zebra-striped tiger, leopard-spotted bird, and fluid pink snake. The jungle around them is reminiscent of a William Morris pattern with curving leaves and vines, carefully structured plants, and flashes of color in the shape of animals and flowers. Another spread, the Upside-Down Mountains, shows a floating collection of mountains, many of them holding pools of swirling blue water. Two white legs flash into one mountain pond, while a girl with reddish-blonde hair swings below another upturned mountain.Blue birds drift across the peach-pink sky and ladders hint at more secrets within the mountains.

Although this is marketed as a children's picture book, I will probably put it in juvenile fiction and promote it to readers who like dreamy, imaginative graphic novels.

Verdict: This may find some classroom use as a collection of writing prompts; otherwise, while it may only appeal to a few children, it will be treasured by those few. Consider your collection and audience before purchasing.

ISBN: 9783791373478; Published 2018 by Prestel; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library

"I fantasize and journey through a world in which the impossible is normal and the possible is jumbled up. Come with me, give me your hand and let's take a peek at a world that only becomes visible when we dream together." So speaks the narrator of this wonderfully fantastic atlas, which describes and depicts such marvels as The Jungle of Hidden Spots, where animals change their coloring every time someone sneezes; The Sleeping Whale, a massive cetaceous creature playing host to an entire city on its back; and The Desert of Lost and Found, where items lost throughout the world are collected. There is no shortage of magical places in this atlas of the imaginary...

Originally published in Spain as Atlas de los lugares que no existen, this fabulous over-sized picture-book pairs author Mia Cassany's array of intensely creative ideas regarding fantastic dream-places, with gorgeous artwork from illustrator Ana de Lima. Although not often an admirer of more pastel shades, I found the artwork in An Atlas of Imaginary Places quite appealing, and appreciated the vivid use of color, and the eye-popping vistas unfolding on the page. The occasional darker two-page spread, as when the Tallest Lighthouse or the City of Butterflies was being depicted, made a nice visual break from the brighter scenes. Highly recommended to all young fantasy lovers, and to anyone who dreams of wonderfully impossible places... ( )