Imagine! Rhymes of Hope to Shout Together
Bruno Tognolini, trans. from the Italian by Denise Muir, illus. by Giulia Orecchia. Red Comet, $18.99 (64p) ISBN 978-1-63655-014-5
In sometimes rhyming quatrains that each begin “If only...” and end with “Imagine!” Tognolini channels the wishes of children. Some desires hint at real-life circumstances (“If only Google could show me a map/ Of where to find work for my darling dad”), while others read as more fanciful (“If only me and my animal friends/ Could do a jaguar roar, join a singing bird band”). Orecchia draws a gaggle of children with various skin tones, while stylized elements form whimsical collages—an airplane carrying gold-filled coffers, a machine that turns tanks and nuclear cooling towers into flowers and birds—in a book whose subject matter pivots rapidly between the serious and the buoyant. Ages 5–8. (Mar.)
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Reviewed on: 04/21/2022
Genre: Children's