A HATFUL OF DREAMS

Amid a dilapidated neighborhood, a little magic remains.

The Five Mile Road was once populated with families, but “hard times came along. The people all left. The sun went with them…the moon and stars, too.” Fortunately, one house is left standing, full of life, love, and laughter. At the Andersons’ residence, young Millie, Sonny, and Jonas demand to know what, precisely, is under their grandfather’s hat. Grandad answers with a wide array of increasingly outlandish ideas, from a lost tune to “a small brown sparrow, an apple with a bite taken out, and a teacup from China with magic inside.” And when, at long last, the children convince him to take off the garment, a marvelous galaxy is released. Graham keeps his plotting and dialogue light and playful even as darkness encroaches. By the tale’s end, something has changed, and the neighborhood becomes revitalized at last. The eclectic mix of realism and magic is what makes this tale work. Graham’s greatest talents lie in the day-to-day natural messiness of life in a family where Dad drops “pieces of tissue from a just-washed shirt like a soft fall of snow.” The author/illustrator’s signature spare watercolors bring to life the gloom of the abandoned street, the warmth of the home, and the magic that leaks from Grandad’s hat. Mom and Grandad are pale-skinned, while Dad and the kids are brown-skinned.

True magic lies at the heart of this marvelous tale.