#537 of 1001 · January 19, 2022

When you constructed fantasy worlds as a child, did they feel real to you? So real that you could reach out and touch them? If so, you may well relate to the experience of the young protagonists of Flashlight Night by Matt Forrest Esenwine and Fred Koehler. During a sleepover, three children begin to play with a flashlight, imagining themselves into a host of marvelous and spine-tingling scenarios. They explore an eerie forest, crawl through a dusty tomb, venture aboard a pirate ship, and evade a giant squid via hot air balloon before returning safely to their backyard treehouse. Esenwine achieves a dazzling economy of language with his spare rhyming couplets. In Koehler’s endearing and clever illustrations (pencil drawings colored digitally), the landscape of the children’s pretend play can be seen overlaid on the real world in the beam of the flashlight. #night #sleepover #forest #woods #pirate #pirates #squid #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks