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Willy
Willy the Dreamer
Dreaming of heroism and fame, Willy the chimp enjoys wonderful adventures, in a story that pays homage to great painters by implementing both Willy and a banana in adaptations of famous works.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published June 28, 1997
4 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Browne
163 books316 followersAnthony Browne, a Hans Christian Andersen Medalist, is the author-illustrator of many acclaimed books for children, including Silly Billy and Little Beauty. He lives in Kent, England.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
October 4, 2017
Every picture a surreal work of art. So many details; one could spend hours finding all the puns & allusions in the book. A book to own, because of course the youngest children can enjoy it on a simple level thinking the ideas just funny, but older children and adults can look for references to Magritte, Carroll, Henri Rousseau, etc., in the illustrations that pay homage to one of the *other* artists.
I do wish there were a 'key' or author's note, however. There were some main references I didn't recognize, and I'm sure I missed minor ones, too.
I do wish there were a 'key' or author's note, however. There were some main references I didn't recognize, and I'm sure I missed minor ones, too.
September 8, 2012
This picture book by Anthony Browne follows the many adventures of a chimp named Willy. These adventures all take place in Willy’s dreams.
We see Willy dreams of many things such as being a Film Star, a Singer, a Sumo Wrestler, a Ballet Dancer, a Painter, An Explorer, a Writer, a Scuba Diver, a Giant, a Beggar or a King. He dreams of both the future and of the past, and also of strange and wonderful landscapes both real and imaginary. Superheroes and monsters and bananas all feature in Willy’s dreams.
This book has been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for excellence in illustration. In my opinion this is a wonderful picture book, with each page displaying detailed and clever illustrations. I believe this book would be suitable for the 4-7 age group, and could be used to read to a class and also to inspire creative writing by encouraging children to develop their imagination.
We see Willy dreams of many things such as being a Film Star, a Singer, a Sumo Wrestler, a Ballet Dancer, a Painter, An Explorer, a Writer, a Scuba Diver, a Giant, a Beggar or a King. He dreams of both the future and of the past, and also of strange and wonderful landscapes both real and imaginary. Superheroes and monsters and bananas all feature in Willy’s dreams.
This book has been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for excellence in illustration. In my opinion this is a wonderful picture book, with each page displaying detailed and clever illustrations. I believe this book would be suitable for the 4-7 age group, and could be used to read to a class and also to inspire creative writing by encouraging children to develop their imagination.
July 17, 2012
'Willy the Dreamer' was the first piece of Browne's work I've read and it certainly won't be the last. This picture book gives a personal insight into Willy's aspirations for life, from becoming an explorer to becoming a famous writer. He belives he can become anything he wants and the author plays on opposites to illustrate this. I found this book gripping from the very first page to the last, with a great sense of curiosity to find out what Willy dreamt of becoming next with the flick of every page. The facinating illustrations which compliment these aspirations encourage the children to believe that they can become anything they wish to be. Children ages 5 to 7 would be suitable for this book as it can be used in the class for creative writing. It can allow the children to express what they would like to become if they were Willy and really get their imagination going.
January 23, 2008
This children's book has more than meets the eye. While the book itself on the surface is a clever treament to a child-aged gorilla's fantasies of having adventures flying, exploring and morphing into monsters, there is definitely a deeper level.
The treatment of gorillas and bananas is so thorough- a mermaid's tail becomes a banana, a hot air balloon becomes a gorilla's face. You could read this book over and over again to count the secret bananas, and also, for older readers, to compare them to great works of art in many mediums, including those by Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Charlie Chaplin, Lewis Carroll, Norman Rockwell, Maurice Sendak and more.
The treatment of gorillas and bananas is so thorough- a mermaid's tail becomes a banana, a hot air balloon becomes a gorilla's face. You could read this book over and over again to count the secret bananas, and also, for older readers, to compare them to great works of art in many mediums, including those by Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali, Charlie Chaplin, Lewis Carroll, Norman Rockwell, Maurice Sendak and more.
November 2, 2007
i love his illustrations - how he incorporates famous artists works into his own - very fun
January 13, 2019
This is a lovely picture book, as part of an english assignment I spent lots of time looking at the illustrations. The illustrations capture children’s imagination and the story and the illustrations are perfect for promoting adventure and wonder. With Willy being dress and taking human characteristics it leads the reader to relate to him and imagine themselves in his place. I have a rough plan of how I could you this book to plan lessons across the key stage 1 curriculum for a year one class.
The only down point to this book is the story is mainly the pictures, the language in the story is simple. More creative language would have really brought the story alive.
The only down point to this book is the story is mainly the pictures, the language in the story is simple. More creative language would have really brought the story alive.
September 26, 2019
Willy The Dreamer is a very simple and easy book to follow for young children. The book is about a smart and playful chimp who dreams about his future through artwork. I think this book would be a good resource to use in primary school as not only is this text very relatable for young children but it is also executed brilliantly with magical pictures with small surreal details, which can be noticed when you read the book through again.
February 25, 2026
voy a empezar a registrar acá los libros que leo con los niños porque la literatura infantil es la más bonita de todas y hace que 22 niños se rían y sueñen. tqm anthony browne eres un regalo para los niños del mundo.
June 28, 2018
A book of binary opposites illustrated beautifully. Plus the intertextuality is very rich in this work as it almost other books of Browne.
October 30, 2018
I really like this book and the illustrations of the dreams of Willy. I think young children would enjoy reading this book and entering the fantasy world of Willy!
September 29, 2019
Wasn’t my favourite Anthony Browne book but I thought it was very sweet and discussable for children. The illustrations are really lovely and very lifelike.
March 2, 2020
Cuento infantil donde cada ilustración es una versión surrealista de cuadros reconocidos, con referencias a Dalí, Van Gogh, Magritte ... muy bonito para peques y con otra vuelta para adultos a los que les guste el arte
November 26, 2015
Willy dreams of many different things, good and bad, and we can discover a lot about these dreams by looking closely at the pictures.
Many of the illustrations contain references to things that Browne is assuming we already know. For example, the image of Willy's dream of being a film star shows us characters from Tarzan, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein, King Kong and others.
Browne also assumes knowledge of certain animals, particularly in the image of Willy as a scuba-diver where we see more literal interpretations of a hammer-head shark, a catfish and a seahorse.
On initial reading, I did not think there were many themes other than the obvious - dreams/aspirations. On closer inspection, I noticed something in the last picture (I won't give it away) which opened up a new realm of possible interpretations.
I think a lot more can deduced from the pictures in this boo that the actual text. There is a lot of surrealism surrounding the images which is intriguing and engaging.
I enjoyed this book and can see it being very appealing to children of all ages.
Many of the illustrations contain references to things that Browne is assuming we already know. For example, the image of Willy's dream of being a film star shows us characters from Tarzan, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein, King Kong and others.
Browne also assumes knowledge of certain animals, particularly in the image of Willy as a scuba-diver where we see more literal interpretations of a hammer-head shark, a catfish and a seahorse.
On initial reading, I did not think there were many themes other than the obvious - dreams/aspirations. On closer inspection, I noticed something in the last picture (I won't give it away) which opened up a new realm of possible interpretations.
I think a lot more can deduced from the pictures in this boo that the actual text. There is a lot of surrealism surrounding the images which is intriguing and engaging.
I enjoyed this book and can see it being very appealing to children of all ages.
February 25, 2012
Anthony Brown did it again! This time I was in shock by the amazing illustrations. I found the artwork was what made the story that more amazing. I believe this book was fun. I loved the bananas in the pictures. Children would ADORE this book because children dream of all of these things and are curious about them. I would use this book to show how people are different. Diversity is a beautiful thing and people need to understand the importance of it and I believe this book shows diversity. I love this story and I found it highly entertaining.
September 24, 2012
Interesting concept book about our capacity to dream, with a chimp as the main character. Willy is shown sleeping in the first frame, and then each subsequent frame (illustrations are shown as framed paintings) shows him in whatever scenario he's dreaming about. Most are positive - in a movie, as a rock star, or a famous painter. A couple are poignant: as a beggar or unable to walk. In the last frame we wonder how many of the dreams were REM-induced and how many were daydreams.
April 17, 2012
I really enjoyed the great pictures in this book, they had great detail and I that young children would really enjoy this story. It is a fun and creative story about wonderful dreams. I would read this to younger children and I think it is a boo that they would be able to read on their own in first or second grade.
November 4, 2007
Kids book + art = very cool book!
March 9, 2011
My class thought this book was funny, cute, imaginative, and had excellent illustrations. We also thought it was very thoughtful and creative. We love Anthony Browne books and Good Reads!
April 17, 2018
This is a surreal and interesting children’s picture book that’s great for introducing kids to the world of art as well as sparking the imagination. ‘Willy the Dreamer’ doesn’t have much of a story, it is a book that is more about the pictures inside than the story being told. The paperback is a bit larger than A4 in size and filled with thick and glossy, colourful pages, mainly of large pictures of Willy’s dreams.
The story runs along the bottom of the page and is a short and repetitive story made of simple sentences about what Willy dreams. Above the writing there is a large picture of Willy’s dream, each page dedicated to one of his dreams. The pictures are quite amazing and very detailed. Although all the pictures are of Willy and his dream, the images are his versions of famous paintings or movie characters, book characters, etc. These illustrations are amazing to look at and I was particularly drawn to pictures of paintings such as Dali’s ‘The Persistence of Memory’ which has melting bananas instead of melting clocks for example.
The further you go into the book the more detailed the pictures become. Each one of the images is very detailed and a perfect altered copy of a real painting. There are plenty of little extra things to spot too such as how many bananas you can find (so many objects are morphed into bananas and I couldn’t help laughing at one of Van Gogh’s paintings of a bed ‘Bedroom in Arles’ where the bed is an entire banana!). There are also funny surreal extras such as a hammerhead shark literally having a hammer for a head.
The book has a good ending, though the last page image is a twist on the first which I didn’t notice straight away!. This is more of a visual book than a storybook. I really enjoyed reading this and can’t help but constantly flick back to see the pictures again. I might be a bit biased having studied art but I think this is a great book which kids will love and one which also has an educational quality as children will learn and know famous paintings through Willy’s dreams, and adults will love sharing this book too as there’s just so much to see and think about!
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy (as part of The Anthony Browne Collection).
The story runs along the bottom of the page and is a short and repetitive story made of simple sentences about what Willy dreams. Above the writing there is a large picture of Willy’s dream, each page dedicated to one of his dreams. The pictures are quite amazing and very detailed. Although all the pictures are of Willy and his dream, the images are his versions of famous paintings or movie characters, book characters, etc. These illustrations are amazing to look at and I was particularly drawn to pictures of paintings such as Dali’s ‘The Persistence of Memory’ which has melting bananas instead of melting clocks for example.
The further you go into the book the more detailed the pictures become. Each one of the images is very detailed and a perfect altered copy of a real painting. There are plenty of little extra things to spot too such as how many bananas you can find (so many objects are morphed into bananas and I couldn’t help laughing at one of Van Gogh’s paintings of a bed ‘Bedroom in Arles’ where the bed is an entire banana!). There are also funny surreal extras such as a hammerhead shark literally having a hammer for a head.
The book has a good ending, though the last page image is a twist on the first which I didn’t notice straight away!. This is more of a visual book than a storybook. I really enjoyed reading this and can’t help but constantly flick back to see the pictures again. I might be a bit biased having studied art but I think this is a great book which kids will love and one which also has an educational quality as children will learn and know famous paintings through Willy’s dreams, and adults will love sharing this book too as there’s just so much to see and think about!
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy (as part of The Anthony Browne Collection).
March 18, 2020
Terminé leyendo este libro por aburrimiento, así como también me llamó la atención lo alusivo del título a lo onírico, una temática que siempre me interesó y en cierto modo me perturba tanto como obsesiona.
Una de las razones por las que me gustó el libro es que, si bien Browne es un autor dirigido a un público infantil, las referencias dentro las ilustraciones (que son parte esencial de la narrativa de la obra) son más cercanas a la "alta cultura", o más bien, a obras de arte que quizás los más pequeños desconozcan. Un ejemplo de esto es la página 21 donde la ilustración es claramente un parodia de "La persistencia de la memoria" de Dalí y esto me lleva a que, como dije antes, hay una alusión a lo onírico en el título: "el soñador" es algo que necesariamente se puede relacionar con los movimientos artísticos que lo trataron como el surrealismo. Más allá de esa ilustración de Dalí refigurada, hay referencias a Magritte (que me parece la mayor inspiración de su estilo), Rousseau, Van Gogh y Sir John Tenniel, el ilustrador clásico de "Alice in Wonderland" de Lewis Carroll. Y de éste último quiero hacer mención aparte: Alice es el libro infantil por excelencia (incluso de mayor importancia de "El principito" de Saint-Exupéry) y el onirísmo de Alicia es algo que se ha imitado hasta el hartazgo sin demasiado éxito a mi gusto. Acá es donde destaco a Browne: logró hacerme acordar a Alicia, así como también a todos los pintores que referencia pero añadiéndole una personalidad propia. El relato se siente cargado de una melancolía propia de la memoria a la infancia, y eso me parece muy, muy destacable. ¡Voy a leer algo más del autor!
Una de las razones por las que me gustó el libro es que, si bien Browne es un autor dirigido a un público infantil, las referencias dentro las ilustraciones (que son parte esencial de la narrativa de la obra) son más cercanas a la "alta cultura", o más bien, a obras de arte que quizás los más pequeños desconozcan. Un ejemplo de esto es la página 21 donde la ilustración es claramente un parodia de "La persistencia de la memoria" de Dalí y esto me lleva a que, como dije antes, hay una alusión a lo onírico en el título: "el soñador" es algo que necesariamente se puede relacionar con los movimientos artísticos que lo trataron como el surrealismo. Más allá de esa ilustración de Dalí refigurada, hay referencias a Magritte (que me parece la mayor inspiración de su estilo), Rousseau, Van Gogh y Sir John Tenniel, el ilustrador clásico de "Alice in Wonderland" de Lewis Carroll. Y de éste último quiero hacer mención aparte: Alice es el libro infantil por excelencia (incluso de mayor importancia de "El principito" de Saint-Exupéry) y el onirísmo de Alicia es algo que se ha imitado hasta el hartazgo sin demasiado éxito a mi gusto. Acá es donde destaco a Browne: logró hacerme acordar a Alicia, así como también a todos los pintores que referencia pero añadiéndole una personalidad propia. El relato se siente cargado de una melancolía propia de la memoria a la infancia, y eso me parece muy, muy destacable. ¡Voy a leer algo más del autor!
September 4, 2017
Ideal as a starting point for small readers, this book is essentially a flip book of interesting and beautiful illustrations demonstrating lots of dreams that Willy the chimp is having about himself. From performing various jobs to flying, this book has everything and all in beautiful colours and fun, witty drawings. You could peruse the illustrations for ages actually, there is so much going on.
The narrative is quite sparse - this book really is all about the pictures - but it gets the message across and acts as more of a description of what Willy is dreaming about, and therefore what you can see in the pictures.
An easy, fun and colourful read for early readers. Willy is a firm favourite in this house!
ARC provided free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The narrative is quite sparse - this book really is all about the pictures - but it gets the message across and acts as more of a description of what Willy is dreaming about, and therefore what you can see in the pictures.
An easy, fun and colourful read for early readers. Willy is a firm favourite in this house!
ARC provided free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
September 30, 2020
This book by Anthony Browne shows the dreams that Willy the monkey has. This is done through little text but mainly through the amazing and colourful illustrations which each show a much bigger story than the text gives.
The book is slightly larger than A4 and the text is big which would make it a great book to read aloud to a class and discuss each image with children (what do they see etc). The text is simple which means children should be able to understand it.
The book could be used in a literacy, art or PSHCE lesson to discuss dreams that the children have had that they can then write down and create an illustration for to represent it.
This book would be great for use in the early years and throughout KS1.
The book is slightly larger than A4 and the text is big which would make it a great book to read aloud to a class and discuss each image with children (what do they see etc). The text is simple which means children should be able to understand it.
The book could be used in a literacy, art or PSHCE lesson to discuss dreams that the children have had that they can then write down and create an illustration for to represent it.
This book would be great for use in the early years and throughout KS1.
May 16, 2019
This is the first Willy book I stumbled across and was entranced. The story is wonderful. An young Willie dreams of himself in very different ways - an actor, a singer, a sumo wrestler, ballet dancer, explorer, diver, and in scary situations where you can't run, but you can escape by flying. And the ART IS AMAZING. First, for young children, you can read the book several times, just looking for the hidden bananas, then enjoy the book with older children as they spot references to other artists and literal interpretations of swordfish and hammerhead sharks, and finally for yourself when you just enjoy Willy's intrepid spirit being revealed in his dreams.
March 8, 2019
Willy, a monkey, dreams. Willy Yeats says that "in dreams begin responsibilities"; I don't know if Willy Monkey would agree. In his dreams, there are phantasmagorical monkey and banana-themed variations on pop culture, surrealistic art, and all kinds of good and clever stuff. Fun for kids and parents!
July 8, 2017
Beautiful artwork with loads of humor and Willy's versions of some famous works of art. I read the Spanish version so I'm not sure I understood everything perfectly, but in English I'd have the same problem. And I got the gist of it.
December 19, 2017
One of the series books which are Anthony's homage to great painters.
January 4, 2018
Great for introducing basic vocabulary to young readers. The illustration are great fun as well.
September 23, 2019
The illustrations in this book are beautiful, they’re vibrant and incredibly detailed.
November 22, 2019
This is about a monkey who dreams. The illustrations are great.
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June 15, 2021Pa' ser niñx, y soñar :)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews