Little bear Hank dreams away, watched over by his hummingbird friend. This setup is on the title page. When he awakes, the tiny bear excitedly tells his friend, "Last night I dreamed I flew!" The double-page spreads then show Hank telling his friend of his adventures on the left-hand pages, while the right-hand illustrations, vignettes inside ovals of dark, starry sky, show Hank's dream. In a nice touch of design consistency, his postures echo across the gutter. On the left, he's seated on a plank bridge across a gorge; the right shows him seated on the side of his hot air balloon basket, suspended over the sea. Cleverly, the scenes also echo left to right. As Hank describes flying far away and out past the trees, he re-creates the scene for his friend, using a rope swing to swing out over a hill and past the trees on it; in his balloon, he's holding the basket's rope in his paws. The artwork is what makes Hank's story shine. Made from paper, fabric, stone and other objects, the dioramas are meticulously crafted, posed and photographed, creating scenes that are full of texture and feature both in-focus and soft-focus layers. Choose this book for the art, as the dream Hank recounts doesn't make for much of a plot. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

K-Gr 2-Hank is a little stuffed creature who lives in a beautiful forest. He tells his dream to his hummingbird friend, and as he describes it on one side of the spread, readers follow his account on the facing page. Throughout, Dudley takes readers inside the magical forest of Storywoods and Hank's world. The vistas are lush and the detail marvelously intricate. Young readers will be enthralled with Dudley's ability to create movement in stationary characters. This is the kind of book that appeals to anyone who has the luxury of remembering dreams and to those whose imaginations create worlds only found in dreams.-Krishna Grady, Darien Library, CT (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In his first book (Hank Finds an Egg), Hank, who resembles a stuffed-animal monkey-bear hybrid, found a lost egg in the woods; now he tells his hummingbird friend about a dream in which he flew. The dream itself doesn't dazzle, but it need not: its job is to set up the exquisite handcrafted dioramas, which show Hank floating in a one-of-a-kind balloon of Dudley's invention. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In this follow-up to Hank Finds an Egg (2013), a little stuffed animal (a monkey, perhaps) recounts to his hummingbird friend a dream in which he sails away on a dirigible across the sea and into the heavens. What's so clever is how Dudley shows Hank doing everyday activities (like running around a field) and how his imagination transforms them into fantastic events (careening around the clouds). As before, Dudley's images are awesome: delicate dioramas handmade from materials like clay, paper, wire, and fabric and then photographed with shallow focus to make them come popping to life. The tone is understated and sweet, and when the hummingbird asks to hear the entire dream again, Hank complies and adult readers should also be ready to accede to similar requests from their listeners.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2014 Booklist

Starred Review. "Last night I dreamed I flew!" announces Hank, the bear/monkeylike critter from Hank Finds an Egg, before proceeding to regale his hummingbird friend with a step-by-step recounting of his dream. Dudley again stages the action in carefully crafted and photographed dioramas, this time creating lovely parallels between the "real" and dream action of the story. On the left side of each spread, Hank races through the forest, sits on a rope bridge, and swings from a tree. Each action mirrors events from his dream, which are shown in scenes that appear at right, with Hank floating over rivers and through the clouds in a delicate, translucent airship. Readers will find Hank's subconscious travels every bit as enticing as his forest wanderings. Ages 3-8. Agent: Anna Olswanger, Liza Dawson Associates.(Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.