Someone Builds the Dream

January 1, 2021
Preschool-Grade 3 This inviting picture book has a single theme, repeated with variations: while creative people are praised for their skills, the things they envision would never be realized without hard-working members of various trades, who turn those dreams into the real-world buildings, bridges, fountains, and amusement parks. Each example unfolds in three double-page spreads. The first focuses on the creator (architect, engineer, etc.). The next shows workers making the actual product, while the third depicts people enjoying it. Wheeler makes her points clearly in rhyming stanzas that read aloud effortlessly. The rhythm of the verses changes from fluid lines about the creative planners to shorter, more forceful phrases describing the builders. Using acrylics and colored pencils, Long offers a broad array of beautifully composed, colorful scenes. Children will enjoy finding the details repeated within each of the three stages depicted. Toward the end, the pictures show the writer and illustrator at work, the books being printed and packed, and finally, children hearing Someone Builds the Dream read aloud. A satisfying conclusion to an original picture book.

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Starred review from April 12, 2021
Employing the refrain “someone has to build the dream,” Wheeler highlights the often-underappreciated physical labor that goes into making just about anything: houses, bridges, fountains, wind turbines, amusement parks—even books. While architects, artists, scientists, and book creators are important, the text observes, their work comes to life thanks to those who make their visions tangible. Utilizing bouncy rhymes (“Someone works to mine the ore,/ smelt the iron,/ pour the beam.// Someone needs to weld the steel./ Someone has to build the dream”), Wheeler peeks behind the scenes, appreciating such workers as welders, plumbers, typesetters, and more. Long’s rich, light-filled illustrations, rendered in acrylics and colored pencil, paint an inclusive world of people of varying abilities, skin tones, hair textures, and religions. A powerful tribute to skilled tradespeople that emphasizes the teamwork necessary to make the world run. Ages 5–8.

Starred review from May 1, 2021
Written in aptly propulsive verse and illustrated with aptly muscular art, this is a paean to people who work with their hands. To make a house, an architect is needed. "But... / Someone works to guide the saws, / plane the logs, lead the team. / Someone needs to pound the nails. / Someone has to build the dream." The book follows the hands-on labor as first a house is built, then a bridge, decorative fountain, windmill farm, amusement park, and finally a book -- the one we are reading, in fact. Visually, Long paces the story beautifully. Spreads depicting the cerebral work of an architect, engineer, artist, and others show the person (usually) in isolation, with a large amount of white space surrounding, even confining, their office, classroom, or studio. The subsequent scenes of their ideas being implemented are full-bleed, full-color spreads full of hustle-and-bustle, with hosts of people (of differing races, genders, and abilities) wielding tools, checking blueprints, and operating machinery. Compositions are controlled but busy; colors are bold. The overall feel is one of concentrated activity, industriousness, and progress, very reminiscent of WPA murals of the 1930s. The framing of the book is effective and child-scaled: a neglected piece of land we saw at the beginning is by story's end transformed into a small, attractive park, echoing the book's projects in microcosm (i.e., workers have constructed not a house but a gazebo; not an amusement park but a playground). Closing text exhorts children to appreciate all the "someones" behind built/made things -- but they won't need much of a push after reading this inspirational, inclusive, and engaging book. Martha V. Parravano

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 1, 2021
Written in aptly propulsive verse and illustrated with aptly muscular art, this is a paean to people who work with their hands. To make a house, an architect is needed. "But... / Someone works to guide the saws, / plane the logs, lead the team. / Someone needs to pound the nails. / Someone has to build the dream." The book follows the hands-on labor as first a house is built, then a bridge, decorative fountain, windmill farm, amusement park, and finally a book -- the one we are reading, in fact. Visually, Long paces the story beautifully. Spreads depicting the cerebral work of an architect, engineer, artist, and others show the person (usually) in isolation, with a large amount of white space surrounding, even confining, their office, classroom, or studio. The subsequent scenes of their ideas being implemented are full-bleed, full-color spreads full of hustle-and-bustle, with hosts of people (of differing races, genders, and abilities) wielding tools, checking blueprints, and operating machinery. Compositions are controlled but busy; colors are bold. The overall feel is one of concentrated activity, industriousness, and progress, very reminiscent of WPA murals of the 1930s. The framing of the book is effective and child-scaled: a neglected piece of land we saw at the beginning is by story's end transformed into a small, attractive park, echoing the book's projects in microcosm (i.e., workers have constructed not a house but a gazebo; not an amusement park but a playground). Closing text exhorts children to appreciate all the "someones" behind built/made things -- but they won't need much of a push after reading this inspirational, inclusive, and engaging book. Martha V. Parravano

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from January 15, 2021
A loving ode to folks who get their hands dirty doing nitty-gritty jobs. It's all well and good that visionaries--authors, illustrators, scientists, illustrators, architects, and engineers--plot ideas on paper, easels, blueprints, computers, and blackboards, but thoughts, designs, and plans remain figments until pipe fitters, diggers, solderers, construction workers, carpenters, welders, miners, electricians, plumbers, and countless others get down to business and bring dreams to fruition by actually making what creators envisioned. Skyscrapers and houses don't rise on their own, and bridges don't span waterways by themselves. And books don't get published by magic, either! Who gets those words and pictures--as in this very book kids are reading/hearing--onto pages? Why, typesetters and workers who run the presses and load the paper machines! This is a gorgeous, respectful tribute, expressed in jaunty rhymes that read well, to the dignity and beauty of industry and the pride and pleasure derived from doing one's best. The word build is repeatedly italicized for emphasis. Crisp, definitively lined illustrations superbly suit the robust theme. They reveal many future-job possibilities to kids and, happily, depict multiple genders and persons of various races plying various blue-collar and professional trades, including a Black woman reading to kids at a library storytime; one character appears in a wheelchair. Tool and vehicle aficionados will feel at home. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8.9-by-22.8-inch double-page spreads viewed at 35.4% of actual size.) Marvelous as a read-aloud and as a springboard to maker projects in classrooms and libraries. (Picture book. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2021
Written in aptly propulsive verse and illustrated with aptly muscular art, this is a paean to people who work with their hands. To make a house, an architect is needed. "But... / Someone works to guide the saws, / plane the logs, lead the team. / Someone needs to pound the nails. / Someone has to build the dream." The book follows the hands-on labor as first a house is built, then a bridge, decorative fountain, windmill farm, amusement park, and finally a book -- the one we are reading, in fact. Visually, Long paces the story beautifully. Spreads depicting the cerebral work of an architect, engineer, artist, and others show the person (usually) in isolation, with a large amount of white space surrounding, even confining, their office, classroom, or studio. The subsequent scenes of their ideas being implemented are full-bleed, full-color spreads full of hustle-and-bustle, with hosts of people (of differing races, genders, and abilities) wielding tools, checking blueprints, and operating machinery. Compositions are controlled but busy; colors are bold. The overall feel is one of concentrated activity, industriousness, and progress, very reminiscent of WPA murals of the 1930s. The framing of the book is effective and child-scaled: a neglected piece of land we saw at the beginning is by story's end transformed into a small, attractive park, echoing the book's projects in microcosm (i.e., workers have constructed not a house but a gazebo; not an amusement park but a playground). Closing text exhorts children to appreciate all the "someones" behind built/made things -- but they won't need much of a push after reading this inspirational, inclusive, and engaging book.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)