Daydreams for Night

by John Southworth, David Ouimet

Overview

Thirteen very short stories from acclaimed musician John Southworth will tweak your mind and peak your imagination.  Meet the boy with grey hair, who spends his days on a cargo ship peeling potatoes, a strange man who keeps a Ferris wheel in his backyard, and a whale that lives in a manmade lake on the top of a faraway hill. Chock-full of details in their brevity, they beg to be mused over. Equally intriguing and unusual black and white illustrations by David Ouimet bright the strange, bizarre characters to life.

Like songs, these stories and the accompanying illustrations are evocative wthout limiting, and beg to be replayed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781927018170
Publisher:	Simply Read Books
Publication date:	02/05/2015
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

John Southworth is one of Canada’s most distinctive and iconoclastic music artists. A key collaborator with Toronto’s Art of Time Ensemble, he performs regularly with his band The South Seas. Outside of his native Canada, his records have been released in the US, UK and Japan. For more info, go to www.johnsouthworth.ca.

David Ouimet is a New York-based artist and musician. He has illustrated several children’s books, and most recently has been experimenting with 19th century medical and scientific illustration techniques to create fine art.

Read an Excerpt

The Magic Box with the Elephant
 
The magic box with the elephant painted on its side is the prize possession of Glen Daly, a retired bricklayer, who lives in an old folks home that faces the sea.  Glen first heard the swirling circus music that churned and turned in the magic box, sitting on the floor of his grandfather’s cluttered workroom as a boy.  Tonight, when everyone is asleep, Glen will dress in his best navy blue suit, and take the magic box with the elephant painted on the side all the way down the winding steps to the stony beach, where he will sit and listen once more, as if it was the first night of his life.

Editorial Reviews

01/26/2015
This collection of 13 vignettelike stories from first-time author Southworth, accompanied by Ouimet’s haunting b&w illustrations, follows in the tradition of Shaun Tan’s Tales of Outer Suburbia and Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. The stories take place in settings and circumstances that are slightly, sometimes disconcertingly, tweaked. In one, a librarian doesn’t notice when a sunflower blossoms out of his head; in another, 10-year-old Ester, who sells more cookies than any other Brownie, retires to her room for three years after trying to sell cookies to a ghostly individual at a funeral home (in the full-spread image that follows, Ester totes a wagon-full of cookies across a great lawn, peering back at the estate as birds swarm overhead). Each story stands on its own, yet they are connected through a shared enigmatic quality, offering up intriguing possibilities over explanations. Ages 8–12. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for John Southworth:



"Is to music what Guy Maddin is to film"

Rich Terfry, CBC Radio



"Canada's best kept secret"

- Stewart Mson, Critical Mob



"A truly true original"

- Steve Guimond, The Hour



"Wonderful, sylvan, sprightly, uber-bolangaire, peculiar and smart"

- film maker Guy Maddin



Reviews for Dare to be Scared, illustrated by David Ouiment:



"The dark, black-and-white, pen-and-ink drawings add an appropriately menacing touch to the stories."

~ School Library Journal



"One black-and-white illustration per story helps heighten the horror, which is never too tense or graphic for the intended audience."

~ Booklist

"This collection of 13 vignette-like stories from first-time author Southworth, accompanied by Ouimet’s haunting b&w illustrations, follows in the tradition of Shaun Tan’s Tales of Outer Suburbia and Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. The stories take place in settings and circumstances that are slightly, sometimes disconcertingly, tweaked. In one, a librarian doesn’t notice when a sunflower blossoms out of his head; in another, 10-year-old Ester, who sells more cookies than any other Brownie, retires to her room for three years after trying to sell cookies to a ghostly individual at a funeral home (in the full-spread image that follows, Ester totes a wagon-full of cookies across a great lawn, peering back at the estate as birds swarm overhead). Each story stands on its own, yet they are connected through a shared enigmatic quality, offering up intriguing possibilities over explanations. Ages 8–12."

Publisher's Weekly

"I would recommend reading this book in the night-time, when the realities of evening fade away. At this time of day, everything is silent and there’s nothing to distract you from indulging fully in your imagination."

~Cuckoo Review

"A beautifully produced book with distinct black and white, gothic style illustrations by David Ouimet, will undoubtedly get your imagination working and your mind exploring."

~Picture Books Blogger

From the Publisher

03/01/2015
Gr 5 Up—This unusual collection of very short tales gives readers a taste of the strange and obscure. The stories range from delightfully peculiar, like "Little Girls," to creepy and unsettling, like "Girl Guide Cookies." None of the entries interconnect and there are no true narratives in these tales. Each vignette is a glimpse of a strange scene, without very much description or any reconciliation. Ouimet's gorgeous drawings meld well with the style of these tales. The detail in the illustrations help enliven sometimes confusing stories; each one is slightly unsettling and helps to enhance the eerie yet whimsical tone of the book. While some children may find interest in the bizarre nature of these short works, it may be a difficult sell for most libraries. Many of the stories read more like lucid dream recollections, and children who are not strong readers may find them difficult to comprehend. VERDICT This gorgeously illustrated but rather odd title should be considered an additional purchase.—Ellen Norton, White Oak Library District, Crest Hill, IL

School Library Journal