Sweet dreams

Paul Schmid’s visual art in Little Bear Dreams is a unique mix of classical feelings and very modern as well. They are very simple. However, due to the size of the book, what little text there is gets lost. And even the images themselves seem to not fit the space provided. They overflow or look squished and either way looks uncomfortable. There is very little color as well. This would be perfect in a medium sized board book format or even an 8×8 paperback book. Instead, this version is a more traditional hardcover size.

There is little to no text. It is simple. The positive here is that a beginning reader could start to read it. However, one page does have about ten words on it. This is one of the more text filled pages. And here a slightly older beginning reader (possibly with help) could read. I do not see this as being an easy read-aloud, however. But the very young child’s attention might be kept due to how sparse the text is. However, there is little to no action, therefore this might take away for the more active child.

I always dislike when a book I want to like does not “make it” for me. I know that there was a lot of work and love put into this book, and it will be perfect for someone, I am just not that someone. With this said, I am interested in checking out a few other titles by him. He has a number of interesting looking pieces of work.