The make-believers

Sibling creators Seacrest and Seacrest Leach spotlight daydreaming in this fantasy-forward double author debut. Savvy opening lines enthusiastically instruct on how to be a "make-believer" ("Start by daydreaming about your favorite things"). Affirming text further conveys a sense of limitlessness, suggesting ways to envision new people, places, and experiences, and hinting that some visualizations can "start looking less like dreams and more like something truly real." Lui liberally scatters repeating shapes (petals, stars) across luminous, soft-edged vistas that call attention to children's extraordinary capacity for individual and collective imagination, accentuating the connection and magic that arises from make-believe. Human characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. An authors' note concludes. Ages 4--8. (Oct.)

TV presenter and producer Ryan Seacrest and his sister, Meredith Seacrest Leach, encourage readers to use their imaginations to the fullest. "You can be a make-believer," the authors tell readers. Your mind can take you anywhere--up and away in a hot air balloon, blasting off on a rocket ship, or traveling across a rainbow, atop a majestic unicorn. Clouds transform into colorful fish; a child joins a llama in song. Though the simple, stream-of-consciousness text accompanying these images suggests that there's no wrong way to daydream, it nevertheless offers examples in case readers feel a bit stumped. And once dreams become bold enough, they may serve to improve young people's lives. These are laudable messages but ones that are clumsily delivered. The prose is tepid, verging on cliched ("Dreams to dream while the sun shines bright, and your eyes are wide open"). The authors deem these vivid experiences "Dreamy Moments"--which feels like an at best distracting and at worse cynical attempt to commodify childhood wonder. Visually, a digitally rendered palette of mellow hues emphasizes comfy purples, warm oranges, and calm aquatic blues and greens. The cast of children traipsing through the scenes are diverse in terms of race and ability and include kids using wheelchairs and hearing aids. Lukewarm attempts at sparking creativity.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.