Dream Street
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES • FIVE STARRED REVIEWS
Visit a truly special street bursting with joy, hope, and dreams. Inspired by the neighborhood where they grew up as cousins, this gorgeous picture book from an award-winning illustrator and critically acclaimed author is the perfect gift or keepsake for every generation.
Welcome to Dream Street--the best street in the world! Jump rope with Azaria--can you Double Dutch one leg at a time? Dream big with Ede and Tari, who wish to create a picture book together one day. Say hello with Mr. Sidney, a retired mail carrier who greets everyone with the words, "Don't wait to have a great day. Create one!" On Dream Street, love between generations rules, everyone is special, and the warmth of the neighborhood shines.
A magical story from the critically acclaimed author of Nana Akua Goes to School and a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winning illustrator. Illuminating this vivid cast of characters are vibrant, joyful illustrations that make this neighborhood--based on the Roxbury neighborhood in Boston where the author and illustrator grew up together as cousins--truly sing. This book is a perfect way for parents to share with their children the importance of community.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Each spread in this powerful evocation of a warm, closely knit Black neighborhood offers a short sketch-in-language of one of its inhabitants by Elam Walker (Nana Akua Goes to School) and a vivid, brilliant collage portrait by Holmes (What Do You Do with a Voice Like That?)—cousins who, they explain in a note, grew up in such a neighborhood themselves. Belle, who wants to be a lepidopterist, catches butterflies in a jar but always lets them go: "Everything has a right to be free." Zion, who's always reading, whispers to the librarian, "Can boys be librarians?" ("Of course they can!" she whispers back.) Grown-ups live on Dream Street, too: Dessa Rae dozes with her grandbaby Little Song; her magnolias "make your eyes feel heavy, as if they want to close." From elders like Mr. Sidney, the retired mail carrier dressed "to the nines," to small children such as young Benjamin, who listens to the big kids playing after his bedtime, everybody knows everybody else, their lives are intertwined, and positive messages abound: "Don't wait to have a great day," says Mr. Sidney—"Create one!" A buoyant celebration of community nourishment, extolling the virtues of supporting children in dreaming freely and fully. Ages 4–8. Agent (for Elam Walker and Holmes): Regina Brooks, Serendipity Literary.
