Dream Town - Hardcover

Michelle Markel grew up in Los Angeles. She has worked as a teacher and a freelance writer, and her writing has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers and magazines. She is the author of three children’s books: Gracias, Rosa; Cornhusk, Silk and Wishbones; and Dreamer From the Village.

Rick Reese was born in Long Beach, California, and raised in northern California. He has worked as an illustrator for comic books and as a product designer for the toy industry. Currently he works as an illustrator and teaches at Cal State Long Beach. He lives in Laguna Hills with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

Kindergarten-Grade 2–Dream Town is a love letter to the eclectic architecture of Los Angeles. On a snowy day, a boy discovers that his nana grew up in a place that was neither too cold nor too hot. He thinks this sounds boring, but she assures him that her Dream Town was never dull. She talks of a giant tamale, an ocean liner docked around the corner, and a stack of records high as the sky. None of this makes much sense until the final pages, where a series of photographs and a rather lengthy author's note provide some information about the city's unusual architecture from the 1920s to the 1960s, and how it reflected the changing culture of the United States. Sadly, children will have lost interest by this point. Despite the mention of a prevalent magic in the air, the grandmother's story is not engaging enough to explain how these extraordinary sights inspired her. Reese's illustrations are cluttered and overwhelming and do nothing to anchor the text, which suffers greatly from too much whimsy and a lack of plot. This is strictly a special-interest book for fans of L.A.–Kara Schaff Dean, Needham Public Library, MA
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