ALA Booklist (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Featuring intricately illustrated settings and whimsical scenarios, this oversize picture book presents a vibrant, dreamy world where "the impossible is normal and the possible is jumbled up." Here readers are invited to discover a jungle where animals can change colors and patterns, such as a rainbow-striped frog or giraffe-spotted elephant; a busy metropolis situated on a sleeping whale's back; and a volcano that spews bubblegum lava, among many others. Lively, brief text reinforces the blend of fanciful and familiar, as in "The City of Butterflies," whose residents, when "sad or worried . . . simply look upwards and marvel at the variety of colorful winged creatures protecting them." Throughout, recognizable, everyday objects are playfully rendered in fantastical ways, like a lighthouse so tall that, once reaching the top, "you can use your finger to draw a new galaxy." Overview map endpapers identify and place each locale within a larger context. Both the imaginative concept and lovely, lushly detailed art will charm and perhaps inspire young ones to create their own wonder-filled worlds.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

An omniscient narrator encourages readers to peruse this "atlas," which is dedicated to a "make-believe world." Spreads are devoted to a city that rains fish, a volcano that spews not lava but bubble gum, etc.; endpapers offer an aerial view of the fantasyland. Set to intricate psychedelic art, this reads like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" for the picture-book crowd.

School Library Journal (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Gr 1-3 In this European import, readers are invited to join the author and illustrator on a journey to place where the "real is unreal and everything is upside down." Each oversize spread offers a large, fantastical illustration of a different enchanted locale, accompanied by a paragraph that describes the make-believe world and its denizens, from "the most beautiful of lady giants" with flowing red locks to animals "that change their coats when someone sneezes." The islands surrounding this continent, including a village that rests atop a sleeping whale and those that resemble sweets, proffer flights of the imagination. It's a "Labyrinth of Dreams" that grants those who make it to the summit the possibility of wishes. The detailed line drawings feature a predominately pastel palette with an abundance of sea blues, earthy greens, and bubble-gum pink (a volcano erupts just that), while the endpapers map this surreal setting. VERDICT While an additional purchase for most, this somewhat wistful book could serve as a prompt for imaginative drawing or writing. Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal