Daytime Visions is not like any other alphabet book.
The endpapers show a woman doing the backstroke, eyes closed, swimming under the sun, afloat in a blue sea of letters. The title-page spread features that same lettered sea, but here an undersea squid squirts just enough ink to make the perfect black backdrop for the book's title. The book is gorgeously, meticulously designed from start to finish, with a charmingly rough simplicity achieved through crayon-like hand-lettering, blocky collages, intriguing textures and inky, kinetic brushstrokes. Every page or spread looks like it belongs in a modern art museum.
From A to Z (shown in upper and lowercase, and in cursive), each letter is represented by a scene, a mini-story, a "daytime vision," with a word or an entire phrase. The letter A spread shows a little bird flying away from a barking dog. "That's not an answer," it says. Does that mean escape isn't an answer? The beauty of it is that readers will bring to each scenario what they will. The letter C is "Come on!" and shows a girl impatiently watching a potted plant grow. The letter K is "The kiwi again!" and, amusingly, shows a large kiwi bird standing atop a child in bed who is clearly trying to sleep. Daytime Visions is in turns funny, touching, thought-provoking and deliciously odd.
Argentina-born Isol (The Menino; Nocturne; It's Useful to Have a Duck) specializes in "the narration through the dialogue between image and word," says her brief biography. B for brava. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness