Sarah L. Thomson

Rob Gonsalves

Presents a night when imagination takes over and gravity does not work quite as expected.

Imagine a Night

Sarah Sammis

After my kids and I read Imagine a Place by Sarah L. Thomson and Rob Gonsalves. Since then we've been wanting to read their other collaborations. Gonsalves is a Canadian artist specializing in surrealistic paintings. Sarah L. Thomson writes short poems to describe his paintings and each book is centered on a theme.

Imagine a Night is themed around nighttime: sleep, snow, winter, candle light and similar. There are blankets of snow that become beds. Moon lit shapes become people (a woman walking from the water and a row of monks). Homes allow the outside in, such as a toy train becoming a real train and a forest growing out of the floor boards.

When we read the book together, we would stop to examine the painting. We were looking for how the words captured the painting. Then we looked at what was "off" about the painting, that point where one thing blends into another.

The endnotes have all the titles of the paintings. We stopped to read each title. Then we discussed the titles. We talked about the titles' meanings and whether or not they were a good fit for the painting.

Ana Cob

My favorite pictures were the two in which curtains were part of the skyline and sky. Amazing!

Rebecca Light

At first I really loved this book but when it repeated itself a few times, it lost me. And then I realized the illustrations reminded me too much of those cheesy double image paintings I see on Venice boardwalk, the one where you're like, "Is it a face or is it a couch? It's both! So clever!" I know it's a whole legit genre of painting; I just happen to hate it.

Imagine a Night

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