IMAGINE A PLACE

Having invited young dreamers to Imagine a Night (2003) and Imagine a Day (2005), Thomson poetically guides further travel into a new set of surreal, elaborately detailed interiors and landscapes created by Gonsalves. In M.C. Escher–like transformations and tricks of perspective, stars in a night sky become fireflies or lanterns, a ski slope spreads out to become an orchard of flowering trees, sea waves change seamlessly into mountains, windblown drapes into a dancing couple and gothic arches into skyscrapers. The captions add to the general air of mystery: “Imagine a place… / where music sings / in every breeze / of a summer night, / and the wind twirls you / in a waltz / that lasts until dawn.” As in the previous gatherings, there’s no consistent theme and any narrative structure is vestigial at best. Still, each picture will bring new wonders to armchair sightseers. (Picture book. 7-9)