The Dream Keeper

[A] soothing, ethereal tale-within-a-tale, a girl draws and plays before bed. . . . The illustrations, appearing in side-by-side panels, capture the magic of the girl’s imagination in sometimes translucent watercolor splashes, illuminating a hopeful path through the frightening night.
—Foreword Reviews (starred review)

With few words, Walker beautifully blurs the borders between consciousness and sleep as the intrepid turtle’s actions result in tender dreams for the youngster. Vivid, expressive watercolors accentuated with spray paint use texture confidently—splotchy, speckled, and sparkling—to convey the story’s narrative arc. Sparkling, splendid artistic techniques create a world worth lingering in.
—Kirkus Reviews

Colored pencil, spray paint, and watercolor combine to create a dreamy atmosphere of delicately blurred lines and warm hazy coloring, while sequential scenes of full-page spreads are often paneled on a white background like a graphic novel.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books