The Dream Book - Softcover

Grade 5-7 Shy 11-year-old Claudia Lemmon and aggresive "Danger" Roth are diametric opposites. Yet every nine days they have the same or complementary dreams. Their dream about a girl boarding a plane with a bowl of Jello is a warning to their cello-playing friend not to go aboard a plane about to be hijacked. A dream in which jockeys race on giant spheres helps them to find Claudia's fatheran aspiring country singer who has become a disk jockey. Ultimately, the dreams help both girls solve personal problems: Claudia comes to terms with her father's having left her mother, and Danger stops distorting the truth. Unlike Into the Dream (Dutton, 1979), in which William Sleater used the psychic phenonmenon of a shared dream to create suspense and terror, Wolitzer uses it as a means by which her characters gain psychological insight. Because the book is skillfully crafted, the use of fantasy in what is essentially a problem novel does work and adds an element of interest. Upper elementary school readers should enjoy it. Judy Greenfield, Rye Free Reading Room, N.Y.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.