The premise behind Giselle Potter’s 2015 picture book Tell Me What to Dream About is picture book gold. This idea is an open-ended invitation to kidlit creativity.
Two sisters share a bedroom, and the younger sister calls to the older from her nearby bed, asking the elder to “Tell me what to dream about or I won’t be able to fall asleep.” Gold! We’ve got sibling relationships, we’ve got a goal (sleep), and we’ve got the door to fairyland: dreams.
The older sister obliges, offering a series of dream scenarios that are fun in themselves and generate vivid imagery. (My favorite is actually the first: waffles, with little animals walking across them.) The proposed dreams also give the book an easy rhythm: older sister proposes a dream, younger sister rejects and pokes holes in the idea. Repeat as needed.
We eventually come back to the waffles at the end, and the objections end…because both girls are asleep.
I can imagine kids reading this and turning it into a game where a parent or older sibling proposes dreams.
