Books About Dreams
When I prepared for my 2025 summer reading game (on North Africa), I was hoping that I had enough books for eager readers. However, after the first rush of families, I found that there were not many of the easier books left. I knew I had to find more. Since the purpose of my summer reading game is to introduce kids to books that they might not otherwise encounter, I went to a section that is not often visited, one I call “Imagination and Dreams.” I realized that there were lots of books on dreams. I decided I could justify including them, since the story of Joseph is so bound up with dreams, and the Bible has a number of “dream stories.” Also, for the younger kids, it made a change from reading about pyramids and mummies.
A Variety of Dreams
There are several kinds of dreams. There are dreams we have at night, which can be lovely, exciting, or even scary (although I have books about nightmares in a separate category). There are daydreams, when you are thinking about things you’d like to do or be. There are motivating dreams, and dreams that arise from what you have seen or done during the day. I’ll try to cover some of each. I also discovered a number of books about animals’ dreams.
First a few “lullaby” dream books. Margaret Wise Brown’s The Dream Book tells of animals and people and what they dream. In Irene Haas’s The Maggie B. a wish comes true in a beautiful dream on a little boat. It ends with my favorite lullaby, “Sweet and Low,” which my mother sang. All the Pretty Horses, by Susan Jeffers, is an illustrated lullaby in which the great pictures make it magical. What Did You Dream? by M. Jean Craig is a lyrical story of a boy who wonders what the tree dreams, what the grasses dream, and he listens to them. Close Your Eyes by Jean Marzollo describes in lovely illustrations all the wonderful things that will happen in your dreams.
Dreams from Books & Animal Dreams
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Kathie Johnson has always had a love for children's books. She collected many as a teacher and began sharing them with other teachers. In 1986, she opened a children's library in her home, and it has continued to expand over the years. Many home-schooled and schooled children borrow books from it, and she takes great pleasure in finding the "right" book for a child. She attends First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley.
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