Emily Winfield Martin is a fantastic writer and I just had to check out this book which celebrates imagination and dreams. Readers will love seeing the magical creatures and rhyme while day dreaming in this book. Her illustrations are so imaginative and I think they especially appeal to young readers. The text is poetic and she makes connections between real life and dreams! ( )

Noted Etsy artist and children's author Emily Winfield Martin, who made her picture-book debut with Dream Animals: A Bedtime Journey, returns in this companion volume, this time exploring daytime dreams, and the animals who escort young children to the realms of fantasy and enchantment. As with the earlier volume, the text here is poetic - "They say there are no dragons left / And that's the way it seems. / To find them you must visit / The land of waking dreams" - and the artwork fantastic. Dragons, phoenix, jackalopes, unicorns and griffins all appear, each one a steed for a lucky child embarking on a magical voyage of make-believe...

As with its predecessor, I enjoyed Day Dreamers quite a bit, finding the gentle text engaging and the beautiful artwork immensely appealing. Martin opens up a world of fairy-tale and fantasy for young children with her lovely illustrations. I enjoy her depiction of magical creatures, and the connections she draws between real-life events such as visiting the museum, and the flights of fancy they can inspire in young children. I was particularly taken with the scene in which two girls see an image of a unicorn - clearly inspired by the Unicorn Tapestries to be found in the Cloisters Museum, here in New York City - and then find themselves riding unicorns through a wood. Recommended to young children who love fairy-tales and stories of magic, as well as to anyone who enjoyed Martin's first foray into the picture-book world. ( )

It is the wise that hold on to their imagination, long after childhood has ended. This is a lovely book focusing on where the imagination of a child can lead. To find wonderful, magical creatures, simply close your eyes and visit the land of waking dreams. As the author states, "And the ordinary world will never guess where you have gone."

Emily Winfield Martin is one of my favorite illustrators. I highly recommend that you take a journey through her lovely words and images. ( )

Children in places inhabited with all sorts of fantastical, magical beasts. ( )

I liked this book, “Day Dreamers: A Journey of Imagination” for several reasons. First, this book is an introduction to children exploring their imaginations when reading different kinds of books. Even though there is not much of a plot, the story is enhanced by the rhyming of different words throughout the book, and exploring children’s imagination through waking dreams. An example of this would be, in the story a boy in the book is riding a dragon. “They say there are no dragons left and that’s the way it seems. To find them you must visit the land of waking dreams.” Only the animals in the story come alive and talk about what can happen in a child’s imagination. Second, the illustrations of the animals and children by Emily Winfield Martin are very detailed with pastel colors. Another reason I like the book is because the children in the book experience the ways your imagination can go rapid. The ending talks about when you leave a dream, it is always waiting for you to return. Overall this story teaches children about how important it is to use their imagination. ( )