Product Description

Willy loves to dream. He dreams that he’s a film star, a sumo wrestler, a ballet dancer, a painter, an explorer, a famous writer, a scuba diver… Sometimes he dreams that he can’t run but he can fly. He dreams he’s a giant or he’s tiny, a beggar or a king, in a strange landscape or all at sea. He dreams of fierce monsters and super heroes, of the past and, sometimes, the future. Willy’s dreamland is a gallery of amazing and magical pictures, each one magnificently executed and packed with bananas and slyly surreal details that cannot fail to intrigue and delight. The pictures pay homage to famous paintings by the likes of Dali, Magritte and Henri Rousseau, as well as film and book characters and much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38370 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Review
"* "Quite remarkable. A work of art in itself, this book will entertain and fascinate a wide age-range as well as the adults who read it." The Good Book Guide"

About the Author
Anthony Browne is one of the most popular and stylistically distinctive children’s book artists with a number of outstanding titles to his credit. These include six books featuring Willy: Willy the Wimp, Willy the Champ, Willy and Hugh, Willy the Wizard, Willy the Dreamer and Willy’s Pictures, as well as Gorilla (Winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Kurt Maschler Award); Changes; The Tunnel; I Like Books; Things I Like; Look What I’ve Got!; Piggybook; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Winner of the Kurt Maschler Award); Hansel and Gretel; Zoo (Winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal) and King Kong (shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal). He was the winner of the illustration section of the 2000 Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Customer Reviews

Yet another utterly fantastic book by Anthony Browne!
Willy the dreamer is a delicious blend of humour, surrealism and poignancy. The illustrations are beautiful and there is so much detail in each picture, the book will give years of enjoyment as new things are spotted. The references to surrealist works of art are very clever, but even without knowing the pictures they are based on, they are still wonderful! My 18 month old daughter absolutely adores the book (as do I!) but I think it would appeal to people of all ages. It is a book that is as much a work of art as those it is inspired by. Read it!

Controversial - Is this book meant for children?
Willy The Dreamer - Is this a book meant for children. The illustrations are surreal and disturbing, indepth meanings line the pages making the book macarbre and eerie. Browne is obviously a fantastic artist, his illustrations are full of intertextuality and also strange chimp esque copies of famous art works, including Dali and Matisse. Children will only see the story on a superficial level but beware when allowing a sensitive child to read it.

Dreamspace
I have used this book with my class of five and six year olds, as a book we shared as a class and in a small discussion group, and with individuals as a basis of art based activities. The children love it and I do too! Its a way into to exploring art and artists at a level the children can understand, with a familar character they know from the other Willy stories, such as Willy and Hugh and Willy the Champ. Willy the Dreamer is the perfect companion to its sister book, Willy's Pictures. The illustrations are beautiful and tell a hundred more stories than words ever could.