"Ben's Dream" By: Chris Van Allsburg

Ben's Dream is a cute little book. It's starts with Ben and Margaret biking home. They were supposed to play baseball with their friends, but it's about to rain so they decide to go home and study for their geography test instead. Ben falls asleep while reading his geography book. In his dream his house is floating on water. For the next 23 pages Ben's house floats past major landmarks, which are half submerged under water. Those pages contain pictures, but no text. When he passes the Sphinx he waves to someone. Then at the end of the story Ben is woken up by his friend Margaret knocking on the window telling him to go play baseball. As they ride their bikes we learn that Ben and Margaret had the same dream, and that Margaret was the person Ben waved to.
It's a cute story that takes something as simple as a dream, and puts a little mystery into it. What if the people you see in your dreams are also seeing you too? Because they saw each other does that mean that they were actually floating past landmarks instead of dreaming? I think that Chris Van Allsburg's books do a great job at getting readers thinking. I know that I thought about this book for a little after reading it. The story is simple, and so is the book's design. The book is green, and the cover is printed with the title written in gold. The dust jacket is simple too. The front is a framed picture of one of the landmarks Ben passes by, and below it is the title. On the back is another framed picture of Ben's house in the water. I think the simplicity of this book leaves the reader room for imagination, and to fill in the blanks. I enjoyed this book, and I think that kids from kindergarten to third grade would enjoy this story too.