NIGHT GARDEN: Poems From the World of Dreams

Margaret McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster, 2000. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. New/New. Julie Paschkis color illustrations. CONDITION: NEW 2000 Margaret McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster hardcover (pictorial boards) & DJ, first edition, first printing. Lovely color illustrations by Julie Paaschkis. CONTENT: In the title poem, Wong compares the bed in which dreams happen with the tangled roots and blooms of a garden bed. The 14 poems that follow are about the people who appear in dreams, eating, swimming, flying, running, and falling. The poems use sound qualities-repetition, alliteration, and occasional rhyme-to capture each dream. Even poems about nightmares and anxieties are couched in gentle language that evokes wonder and thoughtfulness rather than fear. Paschkis's paintings highlight the gardening metaphor. The selections are set against background frames of earth-toned colors, filled with animals, humans, and plants reminiscent of the organic creatures of Hieronymus Bosch. The frames are symmetrically balanced to enclose a small painting on the left-hand page and a similarly shaped space for the poem on the right. Pictures of children of many cultural backgrounds add to the universal quality of the book, as does the last poem, "There Is a Place," which suggests that a storyteller lies inside each of us and comes out as we sleep. Children will enjoy capturing their own dreams and giving them shape and meaning after they have experienced these poems. Grades 3 - 6.