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Title: Gossamer
ISBN: 0385734166
Author:
Lois Lowry
Publicate Date: 2008-01-08
Publish: 2008-01-08
List Price: $6.99
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.46
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.66
Amazon Merchant Price: $6.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Sweet fragments of dream
There's something to be said about a book that's 140 pages long, that you can read in an hour...but you can't seem to get out of your head for the rest of the day.
'Gossamer' is one of those stories. Elegant, simple, straightforward, and yet somehow magical. In one sense, it is the story of a young 'dream-giver' who is just learning her craft, how to draw good dreams from the sleeping world and give them to the dreamers as they slumber. In telling her story, though, 'Gossamer' weaves in the stories of other characters skillfully and subtly, so you learn how the work of the dream-givers affects the waking world, and also how the dream-givers' polar opposites -- the Sinisteeds, violent and terrible givers of nightmare -- make their own mark.
My daughter recommended 'Gossamer' to me, and that recommendation was echoed by a friend who has similar taste in books. It may be a novel intended for a younger audience, but its worth reading for anyone who can set aside their own reality for an hour or so and enter the world of the givers of dreams. For that hour, you'll be treated to a magical story that will hold you in its soft hands for a long time after you close the book.
Enjoy the trip.
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2: A Kid's Review
Gossamer is about a little boy named Jon who gets bad dreams. So... it's up to the dream givers to give good dreams. Littlest it in training to give people good dreams. To give people good dreams the dream givers have to touch something good in the person's life. Jon starts to like a dog. Then the dream givers give him a dream about the dog. I like this book because it is fun to read and makes me think a lot. It makes mo think I wonder if there is such a thing as dream givers. I also think what if I have nightmares for a reason. Lois Lowry has great books. It is an awesome book to read. Sometimes the book is weird. But other then that it's a great book.
JR
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3: Creative Book - Two Caveats
"Gossamer" is a very creative spin of the Light versus Dark motif in the context of dream fairies versus nightmare horses. For her intended audience, Lois Lowery pulls this off with refreshing creativity and well crafted prose. This is a book that can be safely recommend to just about any child (or adult for that matter).
Two notes of caution:
First, Lowery, wittingly or unwittingly, spins her yarn within a worldview where those who have fallen cannot be redeemed. As stated in the case of the nightmare horses and implied in the case of the little boy, whom the fairies must rescue before it's too late, descent into wrongness/evil is a one-way journey.
Second, discerning readers...young and old alike, male especially...will likely long for a few more sentences about the nightmare horses. In addition, if the young boy is as hurt as he's supposed to be at the beginning of the story, he'd likely break a few objects and pull the dog's tail. Just a few more sentences could have suggested a tasteful hint of the pain the old woman willingly assumed and a hint of her understandable ambivalence about the situation.
Bottom line: a very good book for any library shelf. Four stars.
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4: Gossamer
This month I read the fantastic book Gossamer by Lois Lowry. It is about imaginary creatures called dreamgivers. Each dreamgiver has a house; there they gather happy memories from items and give humans and pets dreams. The main character in this story is named Littlest One. Each night she and her teacher Thin Elderly set dreams upon the humans. In the house to which Littlest One and Thin Elderly were assigned lives a lady and an eight year old boy named Jon. The evil sinisteeds have targeted Jon because of his troubled past. Sinisteeds are evil horse- like creatures that can sense weakness in people and work against the dreamgivers. It's up to Littlest One to save Jon before he is stuck with horrible nightmares forever. Will Littlest One succeed as a dreamgiver or will the sinisteeds take over Jon's dreams?
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5: Inspiring!
Gossamer contains both a delightful story about learning to use one's gifts to ease human suffering and a rich metaphor of the workings of the human psyche. Mysterious creatures of the night, more like angels than faeries, flutter and flicker through the objects of our lives finding fragments from which to form dreams to bestow on us. In this gentle story, a young apprentice dream-giver discovers how to use her gossamer touch to find the right fragments to give healing dreams to an abused and angry eight-year-old boy. Lowry has deftly interwoven the story of the young boy and his elderly foster mother with the story of the young dream-giver and her elderly mentor. While kids will identify with the struggles of the youngsters, grown-ups who work with kids will find inspiration in the work of the dream-givers. "We do such important work," says Thin Elderly. "Sometimes we forget that." Thanks, Ms. Lowry, for a wonderful story that will entertain, enlighten and give new strength to readers of all ages.
Janet Gingold
author of Danger, Long Division
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