A great book with a great message, it was definitly 6 year old approved as well. The illistrations are beautiful and I love that there are facts interspered the story. I also love that the end has activities and things to share with your children to keep the story going. I appreciate this especially since we are all stay at home moms right now!

This book is illustrated with such beautiful scenery and has a lovely message. We should all remember that stardust is everywhere and in all of us! There are some fun, inspiring, activities for children at the end of the book.

3.5-4 stars

I rounded up because I think the illustrations are bright and cheerful and really quite beautiful. And overall, the story is great because it has a very positive message of dreaming big and not giving up on your dreams. There is even a section at the end to do a dream board together with your child. That said, I think some of the message is confusing because the first three creatures who achieved their dreams did so because of their biology and not because of anything they really did. Although one could argue that because they didn't give up, they allowed the changes to take place, but I think that's a bit muddled. But then baboon took their changes as a sign that perhaps he could change and that was more about him decided to do so and then working with his friend to achieve that dream. So that was a bit more on the mark. And finally, he sought out the termite and encouraged her to build a hill and find some friends and family to fill it and through hard work, that was achieved. So it starts out a bit more confusing, but I do like the way it ends. And as I said, the illustrations were wonderful. However, because the message is not completely clear, it's possible some kids will just not get it.

Thanks to #KatKronenberg and #NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The beautiful, detailed illustrations will definitely capture the attention of young readers ages 3 to 10. The message contained within the pictures is huge and will need an adult to help children, especially the younger ones, understand. I love the additional activities at the end of the book.

I really like the message of this story and the way that the story builds on itself. Additionally, no animal who is mentioned is forgotten by the end- they are all included. The illustrations are fun and colorful and engaging for children to look at. Additionally, I like that there are notes at the end of the book for all ages for book activities and discussions adults can have with kids that have to do with this book. My daughters enjoyed the fact that there was a song and it was to a tune that they knew.


Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of this book through NetGalley.

I received a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Baboon is moody and puts everyone down when they wish for something but is then astonished when they get their hearts desire because they dreamed and never gave up on their dream.
This is a bright and vibrant, beautifully illustrated book that encourages children to not let others drag them down and always believe and have fair in themselves.
The back of the book has some great ideas to try with your child too.

When you have a 7 year to entertain for a few hours I grab a book or two I found this cute little read on the the read now thread and I snatched it up. My niece loved all the picture and she seemed to enjoy the story! She is asking for more.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this cute little read for an honest review.

Dream Big by Kat Kronenberg follows Baboon’s adventures on the African Savanna. Baboon sees his fellow animals wish upon a star at night so that their dreams might come true. Tadpole wants legs to dance with, Flamingo wants to be beautiful, not fuzzy grey, Caterpillar wants to fly. When his friends dreams start coming true, Baboon decides to follow suit. This book had cute art, but the message fell flat for me. It's lesson of not limiting your dreams is a good message, but important caveats are missing. Simply wishing isn't enough to make your dreams come true. You still gotta have persistence and dedication. Turning lead to gold requires not just belief, but hard work as well. These 'dreams’ of the animals, too, are things that would have happened to them anyway, wish or no. For the most part, they are passive dreams, not requiring real effort in the critter's part. And some dreams require way more hard work and in some cases luck than others do. Some will never come true. No matter how much I wish, dream, pray, or work hard, I'm not ever going to gain my eye back. Despite scientific breakthroughs, I'll likely be long gone before the medical sciences are advanced enough to give me a prosthesis capable of seeing better than my remaining eye. Just saying…

***Many thanks to Netgalley & Greenleaf Book Group for providing an ecopy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I read this through an electronic copy provided by NetGalley.
The story offers an explanation for how animals change - butterfly, frog, flamingo, etc. They wish on the star and dream big. Their dreams come true and the changes they want come true. Baboon watches all of this and sneers at the caterpillar, tadpole and other animals. He figures it out and makes a wish himself. When he believes, his dream comes true also.
The illustrations bring the text alive for younger readers. They can make predictions about what will happen. Interactive text/illustrations let them solve the puzzles included at the end of the book.

This is a beautifully illustrated tale of animals who keep on dreaming until their dreams come true. Unfortunately, the digital copy I was sent cut off a lot of the text. However, through the illustrations, I could see a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, a tadpole becoming a frog, and a flamingo who turned from ugly gray to beautiful pink. The story concludes with the animals having a big celebration.

From the cover to the last page, this book will delight any small child. Set in Africa, the illustrations are bright, amazingly drawn, and will capture any little’s imagination. The story unfolds in messages sent to the animals thru the stars. Make sure to also check out Love Big. Both oh these books will surely be read again and again.

The illustrations are beautiful and the story has a great message. My 5 year old loved reading it.

This book is so cute!

The illustrations are simply gorgeous, rich & full of color and with an art style that is very fitting for the accompanying story. The creatures depicted are realistic, but with a certain whimsy that feels very true to the setting of before a caterpillar could turn into a butterfly, for instance.

The story itself is also wonderful, with a baboon that keeps discouraging various creatures from believing that their dreams can come true, before he, himself, gets inspired to have DREAM BIG. As mentioned, a caterpillar wishes to fly, then becomes sad at the idea that its dream could never come true and hides itself in a cocoon, then awakens as a beautiful butterfly. There is also a tadpole and a termite, among a few others.

The only thing that really kept this from being 5 stars for me was that some of the sounds and rhymes seemed a little off, including the celebration song at the end being a version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. That's more personal preference, but just something that didn't quite work for me or my son (4.5).

"Dream Big" is an extraordinary children's book that successfully transports the reader, young and old, to the magical time when life was forming and changing "in the wilds of East Africa, when the savannas were new." In the hot orange of the daytime, to the music of cynical Baboon's drum beat, Caterpillar longs to fly, Tadpole longs to dance, Flamingo longs to be beautiful, and Termite longs for a home. Cynical Baboon laughs and sneers at them, until, during the cool blue of the evening,"Whoosh Wham You Can Be Anything" flies across the night sky, and Caterpillar grows wings to fly and becomes Butterfly, Tadpole grows legs to dance and becomes Frog, Flamingo turns pink and becomes Beautiful, and Termite creates a home filled with friends and family.

I fell in love with the incredible illustrations first, then I fell in love with the poetry of the story. If you haven't guessed already, I love this book and I wish I could give it more than five stars.

So when I saw this book I thought okay this maybe something A would like. It has animals, a catchy title, looks like bright colors she would love to read this. For us it was okay, there are no words and for me I am not big on that type of format. I like a story with words to be told, as I am not very good at telling a story. Normally I would give a book like that a solid two but A liked looking at the pictures and telling me what the animals were doing so I gave it a three. What I gathered from the pictures and the title is to dream big and never give up. Keep trying for your dreams they will come true.

I like the theme of the story, and the illustrations are wonderful, but it seems too pat and predictable, even for a children's book.

DREAM BIG is an inspirational story for readers of all age. This book illustrates a beautiful message of hope and reaching for the stars. Dream big and never doubt the impossible. Believe in one's self and the sky's the limit.

There are a couple of different ways I look at and rate children's picture books. Is it pretty to look at? Is the story simple and yet captivating for the child? Is there an important message for the child? What is the re-readability (will children want to have it read over and over and perhaps more importantly - will parents mind reading it again and again [and if you don't think that's important then you've never hidden a book away that you just don't want to read again!]).

<em>Dream Big</em>, as the title suggests, is about not limiting your dreams. You can be whatever you want to be. And perhaps there's no better lesson for a child. Let's let them know early on that the sky's the limit.

Is the story simple and captivating for a child. Most definitely yes. The book uses repetition to help build interest and clarity in the story. Repetition is one of the key components for writing a children's book. And the words are simple, making it easy for the youngest of children to listen and grow into the book.

The art is colorful and bright. The style is not my personal favorite. It borders on, but falls short of realism. It is not 'real' in the sense of Chris van Allsburg or Jan Brett, but it's also not uniquely stylized either. These are realistic animals with a slightly anthropomorphized appearance in a slightly flat art scheme.

The message that is being shared here in the story is ... well ... a little confusing at best. On the surface, it's a great message - dream big because you can be whatever you want to be. But the underlying message is less robust. A caterpillar wants to be able to fly. A tadpole wants to be able to jump. A young bird wants to be beautiful. Each gets laughed at by the baboon and each sees his/her wish come true. The caterpillar becomes a butterfly. The tadpole becomes a frog. The young bird becomes a pretty pink flamingo.

First, the dreams of these critters (other than the caterpillar) don't seem to be too far out there. To jump? To be pretty? Can we not exercise our brains just a little more and wish a littler harder for something even more unique? But this is for the youngest of children who don't have much life experience, so that's okay.

But how about wishing for something that can happen with effort to make the dreams come true? Is simply wishing enough? It appears to be so. And what's more, these creatures only wish for something that is going to occur to them whether they wish for it or not. Even though the sky lights up in this book, proclaiming through the stars that "You can do anything" and "you can have anything" that's not the message we're really getting (even though it's a good message!). We're getting the message that 'you're going to change as you grow' (which is okay, too).

So how about the re-reading factor? The language is simple but it struggles to find a rhythm. Sometimes it feels like it's trying so hard to rhyme and when I read it I'm wanting to build in to a nice cadence, but then something trips me up. An added sentence to help the story but not the out-loud reading of the story. I could re-read this to young ones on more than one occasion (though not easily), but once they start asking questions about the animals changing I think it would be time to stop.

Looking for a good book? <em>Dream Big</em> by Kat Kronenberg does itself dream big with a hefty, important message for children, but it just doesn't completely satisfy.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

My Mommy Review: DREAM BIG by Kat Kronenberg is supposed to inspire kids to achieve the impossible. The author describes how the caterpillar becomes the first butterfly and the tadpole becomes the first frog, among other things, by wishing for it. I could not tell what age range this book was designed for. The pictures are bright and colorful, which my toddler son enjoyed along with the animals. The punctuation made this a little hard for my 1st grade daughter to read out loud and it was longer than the usual book she's reading. It also raised some questions about evolution from our prior conversations. She didn't quite get it though, and I had to read it a few times before I felt I did. She loved the ideas of the activities in the back of the book like the drums and the dream catchers.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set in Africa this was a colorful, fun, and inspirational book which encourages children that if they truly believe in their dreams and don't let negative people stop them, they will get their wish, like the caterpillar who wanted to fly, and the tadpole who wanted to hop and jump, and dance, and the flamingo who wanted colorful feathers.

Even the nay-saying baboon is forced to accept that he can dream big for his wish and it will come true. I liked the story for the colorful and entertaining artwork by Stephanie Dehennin, the fun characters, and the positive message.