The other side of dreams is a better version of yourself.

“In My Dreams” is a dream­like work by Greek pic­ture book artist Effie Lada (1959~). It brings us a dream world full of poet­ry and imag­i­na­tion, con­vey­ing a beau­ty that tran­scends real­i­ty and a pro­found emo­tion­al expe­ri­ence to read­ers of all ages. It focus­es on dreams and explores the themes of dreams and growth, and dreams and self-aware­ness. Although this is the first time Effie Lada’s work has been intro­duced to Chi­na, she has actu­al­ly been in the indus­try for many years and enjoys a high rep­u­ta­tion on the world pic­ture book stage. She has been nom­i­nat­ed for the Astrid Lind­gren Memo­r­i­al Award and the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award, and her works are beloved by read­ers in Europe and Amer­i­ca.

The first impres­sion this book gives read­ers is its strik­ing visu­al impact. The exten­sive use of soft pen­cil draw­ings cre­ates a slight­ly hazy, dream­like qual­i­ty. Rada’s style is del­i­cate and expres­sive; many scenes are filled with a fairy­tale-like fan­ta­sy, such as chil­dren float­ing on feath­ers or walk­ing in the dark in shim­mer­ing clothes. These images clev­er­ly inter­twine real­i­ty and dreams, blur­ring the lines between the two. In fact, some crit­ics noticed Rada’s dream­like style ear­ly on: “Her del­i­cate fig­ures always seem to be danc­ing, as if they are nev­er tru­ly on the ground. Influ­enced by nat­ur­al ele­ments and emo­tions, these fig­ures often bend and sway to deeply reveal their inner world.” This visu­al treat­ment always evokes a sense of fan­tas­ti­cal detach­ment from real­i­ty.

What’s even more unique is that the book uses translu­cent trac­ing paper as inserts, placed between the black and white illus­tra­tions on the dou­ble-page spread. As read­ers turn the pages, the orig­i­nal­ly sim­ple images become more lay­ered due to the col­or­ful pat­terns on the trac­ing paper, fur­ther enhanc­ing the ambi­gu­i­ty and mys­tery of the dream.

For exam­ple, on pages 20–21, “I dream that I get out of my bed and I walk and walk and walk …”, in the black and white illus­tra­tion, a half-asleep girl wan­ders out of the room, head­ing to the right, but her des­ti­na­tion is unclear; at this moment, on the trac­ing paper, a col­or­ful bus is dri­ving towards the right edge of the page, and strange­ly, judg­ing from the dot­ted line of the bus’s move­ment, it delib­er­ate­ly avoids a hedge­hog in the road; and turn­ing the trac­ing paper, the bus is dri­ving in the oppo­site direc­tion on the left page. The girl con­tin­ues on to pages 22–23, “…until I reach the edge of my own shad­ow.” Look­ing at the black and white illus­tra­tion alone, there is only the girl and her long shad­ow, but in the col­ored illus­tra­tion on the trac­ing paper, there is also a col­or­ful girl her­self stand­ing at the edge of the shad­ow…

This grad­ual visu­al change not only immers­es the read­er in the won­drous atmos­phere of a dream but also cre­ates a unique inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence, mak­ing the process of turn­ing the pages feel like an active jour­ney of explo­ration with­in the dream world. Many read­ers are cap­ti­vat­ed by this exquis­ite design, prais­ing it as “full of ten­der­ness and inspi­ra­tion on every page.” Chil­dren, through this unique visu­al design, can expe­ri­ence the lay­ered pro­gres­sion of the visu­als, more intu­itive­ly feel­ing the fan­tas­ti­cal and ever-chang­ing nature of dreams.

While trans­lat­ing this book, what par­tic­u­lar­ly moved me were pages 14–15: “A rainy fall evening … I wait until sun­rise for the train that brings me the smil­ing faces of my loved ones.” Although the main imagery is in black and white, it evokes a pure warmth and antic­i­pa­tion. The fields and dis­tant views, ren­dered with del­i­cate lines, cre­ate a sense of open­ness, yet not empti­ness; rather, the tran­quil­i­ty of the fields instills a sense of peace. The pro­tag­o­nist stands beside the rail­way tracks, the inter­sect­ing lines point­ing into the dis­tance, seem­ing­ly guid­ing the eye to the approach­ing train. The soft light brings a sense of peace, espe­cial­ly the street­lights on the right, which seem to envel­op the wait­ing pro­tag­o­nist in a warm halo. But the most exquis­ite ele­ment is the driz­zle on the trac­ing paper and the splash of red umbrel­la, which adds to the dream­like haze and uncer­tain­ty, as well as the dynamism of the rain. Once this veil is lift­ed, the read­er feels a pro­found sense of reas­sur­ance. That splash of red allows one to feel a warm and joy­ful antic­i­pa­tion with­in the uncer­tain, flow­ing imagery.

This visu­al­ly stun­ning pic­ture book, through the inge­nious com­bi­na­tion of text and dynam­ic images, pro­found­ly explores the rela­tion­ship between dreams and life, and dreams and growth. Rad­ha’s nar­ra­tive is con­cise and poet­ic; through a child’s per­spec­tive, she show­cas­es the diver­si­ty and pos­si­bil­i­ties of dreams—from wear­ing beau­ti­ful clothes to fly­ing on feath­ers, from strolling through a night­time gar­den to explor­ing a maze. Dreams pro­vide chil­dren with a world full of imag­i­na­tion, far removed from the con­straints of real­i­ty.

Although the book empha­sizes that “dreams almost always take place in the dark,” these dreams are not neg­a­tive; they are full of pos­i­tive mean­ing. Through these dreams, the pro­tag­o­nist grad­u­al­ly dis­cov­ers and accepts her­self, ulti­mate­ly reach­ing a moment of light—“I look the world in the eye and … I am myself.” In this process, the author not only reveals the fan­ta­sy and mys­tery of dreams but also con­veys to chil­dren a con­cept of growth that involves fac­ing real­i­ty and accept­ing one­self. At the end of the sto­ry, even though the child returns to the real world and faces the cracks in the wall­pa­per, she still choos­es to face the world and accept the beau­ty with­in its imper­fec­tions.

This tran­si­tion from dreams to real­i­ty is, in fact, a process from fan­ta­sy to self-accep­tance. This nar­ra­tive serves as an impor­tant exam­ple for chil­dren’s devel­op­ment, guid­ing them to under­stand and accept them­selves through dreams, and to feel their own pow­er in real­i­ty.

Effie Rad­ha was born and raised in a small vil­lage on the Pelo­pon­nese penin­su­la in Greece. After suc­cess­ful­ly pass­ing her med­ical school entrance exams, she decid­ed to end her for­mal edu­ca­tion and become a wife and full-time moth­er. While rais­ing her two daugh­ters, she began to draw seri­ous­ly, work­ing as a Christ­mas card artist and the­atri­cal set design­er, but ulti­mate­ly devot­ed her­self to chil­dren’s book cre­ation. From the begin­ning, her art­work was a way for her to express her mater­nal feel­ings and com­mu­ni­cate with her chil­dren. This was also the start­ing point for her chil­dren’s book cre­ation.

Lada’s depic­tions of dreams stem not only from her con­cern for the inner world of chil­dren but also from the artis­tic sub­li­ma­tion of her per­son­al life expe­ri­ences. In her view, dreams are win­dows into human emo­tions and imag­i­na­tion, espe­cial­ly for chil­dren, who use them as an impor­tant means to release emo­tions, express desires, and resolve inner con­flicts. There­fore, she choos­es to use art to present this seem­ing­ly elu­sive top­ic to chil­dren through beau­ti­ful illus­tra­tions and sim­ple lan­guage. Such cre­ations help chil­dren under­stand the mean­ing of dreams, espe­cial­ly those that may trou­ble their emo­tions. Through the form of dreams, she shows chil­dren a world to explore, a bound­less men­tal space, help­ing them cope with life’s chal­lenges and cul­ti­vate self-con­fi­dence and curios­i­ty about the unknown.

Dreams are an impor­tant part of every­one’s life, espe­cial­ly for chil­dren, as they reflect their sub­con­scious, emo­tions, and dai­ly expe­ri­ences. Whether a dream is illu­so­ry or helps chil­dren under­stand the world, the key is guid­ing them to com­pre­hend it and draw pos­i­tive strength from it. “In My Dreams” offers a rare and excel­lent tool to help chil­dren under­stand dreams and emo­tions, teach­ing them how to view dreams, how to under­stand them­selves through dreams, and how to find beau­ty and strength even when fac­ing con­fu­sion and imper­fec­tions in real­i­ty.

Beyond dreams can be a bet­ter ver­sion of your­self. The pow­er of dreams lies not only in their mys­tery and fan­ta­sy, but also in their abil­i­ty to guide us to dis­cov­er that bet­ter ver­sion of our­selves. In this sense, this book is also suit­able for adults who still dream often.

Writ­ten by A‑Jia on Sep­tem­ber 10, 2024 in Bei­jing