Book Review: The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros and Julie Morstad

★★★

This story is about a Greek girl and her favourite dress. The girl’s mother made the dress especially for her, and she wears it every day, playing, picking flowers, and much more. At some point, the girl and her family immigrate to the US. Along the way, the girl is separated from her dress. For years while the girl grows up, the dress travels around the world looking for the girl, until one day the girl sees it hanging in a thrift shop. While it no longer fits her, it’s perfect for her daughter.

I was immediately drawn in by this story. Obviously, the topic of immigration is a very current one, and I think it’s good for children to be introduced to it early on. It’s important for them to understand what it means to leave behind your whole world to go and live somewhere else in the hope that it’ll be better. Especially now that ‘immigrant’ often has a negative connotation. I did feel in this sense, the story fell a bit short. Additionally, there was some vagueness. From the girl’s perspective, she was having a wonderful childhood in Greece, so why did they move to the US? I was also unclear on how the girl was separated from her dress. The story talks about folding the dress up and leaving it in a trunk, but it wasn’t clear whether the family forgot the trunk somewhere, or if maybe the girl was too big for the dress and stored it away.

Aside from that, the book is beautiful. The writing is very lyrical, and it flowed really well.

“Back when time seemed slower, and life simpler, there was a dress. A dress much like many others, made for a girl by her mother”

Also, I thought it was very unique that the dress was personified. You really did get the impression it wasn’t just a girl in a dress, but two best friends playing together.

Julie Morstad’s illustrations are beautiful. The matte, vintage colour palette does make the illustrations feel older, and as the story does take place decades ago, it transports you back through time. I also like the little details in the illustrations. For example, in the larger settings there are many individuals, but you can see each one has been illustrated with care. I can also imagine it would be great fun for kids to try and find the girl and the dress in these illustrations, as sometimes she can be hidden a little! I also loved the added touch that the endpapers were the pattern of the girl’s dress.

All in all, the illustrations stole the show this time around, for me. While the writing was excellent, and the story touched upon very important and current topics, I did feel the story itself was a weaker point of this picture book, and I would have liked to see it worked out a bit more.

If you would like to buy your own copy of The Dress and the Girl, you can do so at Book Depository.*

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I would like to thank Abrams & Chronicle Books for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review