Dreams of an Extraordinary Life.

In The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros a young girl dreams of having an extraordinary life. While wearing her favorite dress her mother made her, she goes and enjoys the simple life of her village: watching the sunset, doing chores, picking flowers, going to school, playing and riding in wagons. One day, her family takes a special trip. They are emigrating to a new country. And while the girl and dress still play and go to school, instead of a wagon they are in a large boat. When they get to their destination, the dress (folded neatly in a trunk) is separated from the girl. It waits and waits…. soon it decides to find the girl, going on many adventures until it goes on one final (and special) one.

I truly love the illustrations. However, the story has a few weak spots. Why does the girl leave the trunk behind at Ellis Island? Why do the sailors take the trunk with them? How and why does it get to all the other destinations? And yes, (spoiler) why and how does it just happen to get back to New York and the girl, now a woman with her own daughter? You cannot answer most (if any) of these questions in a picture book, but that does not mean I do not have them!

The illustrations are lush and tell the story along with the text. Plus, it has its own story as you see the adventures the trunk/dress and the girl have concurrently. They are lush, bright, vibrate, and full of their own adventures.  Julie Morstad has created a work of art to compliment the text well. She has a certain style that you can see, yet each work she has done has its own unique style as well.