This book according to Browne contains, "everything I wanted to paint, all at once." The book is full of a number of seemingly random things that one could find themselves daydreaming about. Willy the main character dreams about being a movie star, a singer, a writer, a scuba diver, being a giant and the future, just to name a few. As with a lot of Browne books I feel the star of the show is his illustrations. The gorillas he portrays are very realistic looking and its very easy to tell what each drawing is. When Willy is dreaming about being a writer he is sitting a table surrounded by the characters from Alice In Wonderland, something simple like this really catches my eye and makes me appreciate the book a little more.
This book would be great for having students create their own short stories about dreams they have had and creating illustrations for each of those dreams. On the second to last page, Willy is dreaming about the future and I would like the students to write a narrative explaining how they see their future, which could be useful in helping students develop goals for themselves. This book is also a great example of how illustrations can truly reinforce the text. For example, when Willy is dreaming about being a singer Browne chose to portray the chimp as Elvis. A singer could be anyone, but Browne gives the singer a face, personality and a voice. These are important considerations and are things that can teach students of importance of detail. The Willy series by Browne has left me wanting more and hoping there are more Willy books to come.
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