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  • In the Meadow of Fantasies

In the Meadow of Fantasies

Author
Hadi Mohammadi
Illustrator
Nooshin Safakhoo
Publication Date
November 02, 2021
Genre / Grade Band
Fiction /  2nd − 3rd
Language
English
Format
Picture Book
In the Meadow of Fantasies
Currently out of stock
Description

Written by the winner of IBBY's Best Book Award, Mohammad Hadi Mohammadi, In the Meadow of Fantasies is one girl's luminous escapade into a land of seven mysterious horses.

A young girl with a physical handicap gazes up at a mobile of spinning horses from her little pink bed in her room filled with leafy plants. As she watches them prance about, the tufted snout of a real live horse peeks through her bedroom door. Soon enough, our bright protagonist is off and cantering on an adventure with seven majestic horses. The first six are easily understood: their colors, dreams, families, and origins are described and accompanied with exquisite drawings. The seventh horse, however, is an enigmatic creature with no clear hue or history, a lack that is soon filled in by the loving offerings of the other ponies.

A story about dreaming and about caring for others, In the Meadow of Fantasies will remind young readers of their own reveries and conjure new fantasies of friendly creatures in far off lands.

Publication date
November 02, 2021
Genre
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781939810908
Publisher
Elsewhere Editions
BISAC categories
JUV051000 - Juvenile Fiction | Imagination & Play
JUV010000 - Juvenile Fiction | Bedtime & Dreams
JUV039150 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Special Needs

Publishers Weekly

Not a folktale, not a poem, not a dream, but some whirling mixture of the three, this lulling recitation by Iranian author Mohammadi affirms generosity as a natural impulse. A paper-white girl in bed beside a wheelchair imagines into life the seven horses of a mobile that hangs above her. Straightforward lines categorize the dot-eyed equine beasts: "The first horse was white./ The second horse was black/... But the seventh horse had no color at all." Illustrator Safakhoo represents the girl, the horses, and their exploits in finely hatched ink lines and muted colors. With droll humor, she draws a large aboveground pool in which the horses bathe to give a patch of their color to the seventh horse, whom the girl pushes in off a diving board: "Now the seventh horse was of every color." The seventh horse has no home, but the others give it parts of theirs; the seventh horse has no dreams, but the others share theirs, and the transformation slowly brings color to the girl's world. Repeating phrases and softly amusing drawings give this imaginative realm of loving-kindness a gossamer touch. Ages 3-7. (Nov.)

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Hadi Mohammadi
Hadi Mohammadi is a distinguished Iranian children's book writer, researcher, and critic. He began his career as a freelance writer at the age of 22 and has now published more than 40 novels and picture books for children and young adults. A strong proponent of women's rights, Mohammadi has centered strong and confident girls as his heroines throughout his career. His work has been translated into several languages, including English, Thai, Turkish, Korean, and Arabic. He was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006.

Nooshin Safakhoo was born in Tehran in 1980. After teaching painting classes and illustrating magazine articles, she began a long career of painting precise, lyrical images for children's books, including The Owl & the Jaybird and Shahname. Her illustrations for In the Meadow of Fantasies have earned her numerous awards, including from the NAMI Concours; and she has been selected three times to show her work at the Bologna Children's Book Fair.

Sara Khalili is an editor and translator of contemporary Iranian literature. Her translations include Moon Brow and Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour, The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons by Goli Taraghi, The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee, Kissing the Sword by Shahrnush Parsipur, and Rituals of Restlessness by Yaghoub Yadali. Her translation of Tali Girls by Afghan novelist Siamak Herawi is forthcoming from Archipelago.
Batchelder Award
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Honor Book 2022
ALSC Notable Children's Book
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Selection 2022
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