A
fter reading Long Night Moon by Cynthia Rylant, I wanted to check out some other books by her. We had The Dreamer at the library where I work, and I thought the illustrations looked beautiful after a quick flip through, so I checked it out.
I suppose I should have realized as I flipped through that this book was a retelling of the story of creation. This book depicts God as an artist who daydreams and creates the things he sees in his dreams.
“As he dreamed in his mind, he would see something he hadn’t seen before. Something beautiful. Something new.”
He sees stars and decides to cut them out of paper, and then he has the heavens.
“This is the story of the one who dreamed the world.”
The dreamer needs someone to see the beautiful things he has made, so he creates humankind.
I really enjoyed the absolutely beautiful illustrations in this book. I could see myself framing some of these on my wall. Moser’s illustrations perfectly match the story; they might have even made the story more beautiful for me. The prose was gorgeous as well.
The book has a kind of dreamlike quality to it, much like the daydreams that the artist is having in which he imagines all of these wonderful new creations he can make. The reader floats along on clouds with the dreamer. The story was quite enjoyable and very creative.
Publication info:
The Dreamer
Written by Cynthia Rylant; illustrated by Barry Moser
Published by Scholastic; October 1993
32 pages (hardcover)
Caught Read Handed 