Gossamer - Lois Lowry
Abused kid gets otherworldly help; magical enough.
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Book details
- Author:Lois Lowry
- # of pages: 140
- Publisher:Houghton Mifflin Children's Books
- Original Publication Date: 05/14/2006
- Genre: Fiction - Fantasy
- Hardcover: $16
- Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 10-14
- Read Aloud: 9
- Read Alone: 9
Parents need to know
Parents need to know that while nothing is described graphically, there are clear references to child abuse.
Families can talk about the role of happy and unhappy memories in prompting dreams and nightmares, and can also use the plot as a launching pad to discuss the concept of dreams. What purpose do dreams serve -- and can they strengthen you? What are some of the best and worst dreams you've ever had? Do you have any recurring dreams? What do you think they mean?
Families can talk about the role of happy and unhappy memories in prompting dreams and nightmares, and can also use the plot as a launching pad to discuss the concept of dreams. What purpose do dreams serve -- and can they strengthen you? What are some of the best and worst dreams you've ever had? Do you have any recurring dreams? What do you think they mean?
Message
Social Behavior:
Consumerism:
A video game console mentioned.
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Adults smoke and drink.
Violence
A man hits his wife and child, pushes the child's face into the floor, and forces him to eat dog food.
Sex
Language
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Matt
There are dream-givers, who haunt our homes each night, collecting scraps of memories from our belongings and then bestowing them on us as dreams. There are Sinisteeds, who are former dream givers turned dark, who inflict nightmares, and sometimes attack in Hordes.
And there is an angry boy, taken from an abusive home and placed in foster care with a lonely old woman. The old woman needs the strength to help the boy, his mother needs to pull her life together to get him back, and the boy has become the focus of a Horde. The only help available to any of them are a very young dream-giver-in-training and her elderly mentor.
Is it any good?
This is an oddly magical little story for the author of Number the Stars (about the Holocaust) and The Giver (dystopian society). But it's oddly compelling as well.
Kids, especially those having trouble with dreams and sleeping, may be enchanted by the image of the sweet little dream-givers and their battles with Sinisteeds.
The juxtaposition of this sweetly reassuring part of the story with the serious abuse that the boy has endured is a bit jarring, though Lowry handles it delicately. Still, a child sensitive enough to revel in the dream-givers may need some adult explanation of how a father could do these kinds of things to his child.
Other choices
Other Books by Lois Lowry
The Giver
Number the Stars
Gathering Blue
The Silent Boy
Looking Back: A Book of Memories
Messenger
All About Sam
Anastasia Krupnik
More Dreams
The Dream Bearer by Walter Dean Myers
The BFG by Roald Dahl
The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan
The Night the White Deer Died by Gary Paulsen
Stephen Fair by Tim Wynne-Jones
Related Web Site
Author's Site
Parents and kids say
All Reviews
There are 7 reviews.
Age 8+
Posted on 12/01/07 by Anonymous Adult contributor
Age 8+
Posted on 09/11/06 by Anonymous Adult contributor
Age 13+
Posted on 08/28/06 by Anonymous Adult contributor
Adult Reviews
There are 4 reviews.
Age 8+
Posted on 12/01/07 by Anonymous Adult contributor
Age 8+
Posted on 09/11/06 by Anonymous Adult contributor
Age 13+
Posted on 08/28/06 by Anonymous Adult contributor
Kids Reviews
There are 3 reviews.
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