ALA Booklist (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

You only have to close your eyes / And when you snuggle in . . . / You'll be carried to your dream tonight / On wing or paw or fin. As children cuddle up with their special stuffed animal in their cozy beds, dreams come to carry them off on adventures. One boy's bear takes him to bake fabulous pastries to serve to some peculiar fairy tale friends. A girl encircled by fireflies rides a red fox to a magical forest, where she plays the banjo with an elf orchestra hidden in an underground hollow. Whether taking tea with mermaids in pale green waters, flying over a prehistoric world on a winged bicycle, or painting the stars while resting on the moon, these dreams suggest delightful and fantastical experiences. Martin sketches the sleeping children in black-and-white and renders the enchanting scenes of their dreams in vivid color. A sweet and lyrical bedtime story.

Horn Book (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

And when you snuggle in... / You'll be carried to your dream tonight / On wing or paw or fin.

Kirkus Reviews (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

An invitation to "close your eyes" and "snuggle in" to be transported by a menagerie of dream animals to magical adventures. When readers fall asleep at night, "animals from long ago / And twice as far away" could carry them to their dreams on "wing or paw or fin." A bear might carry them to a never-ending feast. A fox might take them to an "elfin hollow / Hidden underground." Robins may fly them above the trees or a narwhal dive them beneath the seas to a mermaid tea party. A tiger could take them to a circus or perhaps a moth will carry them to the "very moon and stars." Neatly enclosed within line borders on a serene, pale blue background, the enticing rhyming text accompanies a fluid sketch of a sleeping child in a real-world setting with a toy animal, foreshadowing the dream animal that, on the opposite page, transports the child to a fantasy destination revealed in the subsequent double-page spread. These stunning, full-color illustrations rely on polished brush strokes, midnight blue backgrounds and ethereal light to produce an almost surreal atmosphere in which children quietly ride their dream animals to fantastical venues, silently suggesting the infinite possibility of dreams. A visually elegant and textually cadenced bedtime treat. (Picture book. 3-6)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A boy dreams that his teddy bear gets supersized and carries him off to a magical kitchen, where he plays chef to Humpty Dumpy, a robot, and a friendly ogre. A girl snuggles with a stuffed narwhal and soon she is -Beneath the seven seas,- attending a tea party with mermaids. -Whatever dream you visit/ When night replaces day,/ Your furred, or finned, or feathered friend/ Will surely know the way,- writes Martin (Oddfellow-s Orphanage), who runs the popular Black Apple store on Etsy. The minimalist ink-sketched bedrooms of each dreamer give way to luxuriant fairy-tale images rendered in dense, subtly radiant colors, which are reminiscent of classic European illustration (a scene in an -elfin hollow,- in which the young dreamer is crowned with a garland during a sort of jamboree, is particularly Germanic in mood). Martin-s rhymes are literal and don-t make much of an impression, but her pictures, which skirt sentimentality despite their cherubic aesthetic, will take firm grip of readers- imaginations as they make their own ways to dreamland. Ages 2-5. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Oct.)

School Library Journal (Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2016)

Toddler-PreS Children are carried off to Dreamland with the aid of their stuffed animals, light nights, and mobiles. Drifting off to fairy lands, below the ocean, and to constellation-filled skies, the darling toddlers are shown sleeping in their beds, cuddling their toys on one page, and playing with a larger version of their inanimate friend on the opposite page. Lyrical text and lilting rhyme add to the illustrations' vintage, painterly feel. A sweet bedtime send-off.