Imagine a Night

This is the first of 3 books by Sarah Thomson, illustrated by Rob Gonsalves, that I own. I recently discovered that there is a fourth in this series, which will be added to my collection soon.

Although Thomson is American, Gonsalves is Canadian and I am including these books as Canadian reads, for my own purpose of reading more Canadian books this year. 2 of the 3 have won a GG (Governor General) award, a Canadian award for excellence and distinction in literature.

Gonsalves' artwork is described as magic realism and is somewhat reminiscent of Escher or Magritte but in my opinion, his work is much more ethereal yet photographic, at the same time. He studied and worked as an architect as well and that comes through in the work, too. His show more images are so evocative, so imaginative, and, together with the short poetic words of Thomson, make these books absolutely mesmerizing. I wondered which came first: did Gonsalves read the words and interpret them in his images or did Thomson see the art and interpret it in her words? But in this, the first book, it does say, at the end, that the images came first, and inspired the word.

Just so beautiful... show less

Beautiful book, but some children might find some of the images confusing or scary. I found I needed to be careful with my tone - reading it lightly and happily. If I slowed it down too much, it became a bit spooky.

The illustrations are quite lovely but the text was kind of clunky and, I thought, totally unnecessary. Would have had more impact with just the images.

Imagine a Night is a story that shows you how extraordinary anyone's imagination can be. Imagination can take you to different places and let you have the time of your life without actually going anywhere. In this book you will find that you can imagine anything anywhere. For example, from the light of the moonlight hitting the trees you can see women walking in the lake carrying a lantern. Or instead of just jumping on quilts you can imagine flying over fields . To me this book is telling me to never stop using my imagination because it's the best thing anyone can have!

Every single "imagine a night" is an open-ended request. So much discussion can stem from just ONE page of this book. If I'm looking for a book to use to get students involved, this is the one! So many possibilities. So much captivating wonder. This series is just sooo enchanting to me. Always imagine

This book take you on a journey to think past what you see at first. It makes you use your imagination as well. I feel as though this book make you think like a child does when they are playing. I enjoyed this book and would have it in my personal and classroom libraries. I would suggest this book to other teachers as well as an art teacher to see what type of project she would ask the children to do.

A book of surrealist paintings accompanied by dreamy prompts. Interesting as art, less purposeful as literature.