The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst ISBN: 0544464974
Published by Clarion Books on November 3rd 2015
Genres: Action & Adventure, Children, Fantasy & Magic
Pages: 384
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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"A perfect combination of adventure, humor, and pure imagination!" —Jessica Day George, New York Times best-selling author of Tuesdays at the Castle "Funny, scary, and endlessly inventive.” —Bruce Coville, author of Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher Sophie loves the hidden shop below her parents' bookstore, where dreams are secretly bought and sold. When the dream shop is robbed and her parents go missing, Sophie must unravel the truth to save them. Together with her best friend—a wisecracking and fanatically loyal monster named Monster—she must decide whom to trust with her family’s carefully guarded secrets. Who will help them, and who will betray them?
MY THOUGHTS
Sophie has never had a dream in her whole twelve years. OK, that is not entirely true. . With the use of dream catchers, her parents capture dreams and sell them to those wishing specific dreams. She has been told to never drink one of the distilled dreams, but when she is younger decides to steal one. Out of that dream, she has brought back a monster and of course named him “MONSTER”. Monster becomes her best friend and confidant who stays in her parents book store,The Dream Shop, which also serves as her home.
While an outsider at school, Sophie does manage to be frienemies with the most popular girl, Madison, at school because she suffers horrible nightmares and the dream catchers take them away. When a new boy starts at school, Sophie recognizes that Ethan also has nightmares and slips him a dream catcher. When her parents go missing, Ethan, Sophie and Monster band together to find them. Along the way, they find Madison and another young girl are missing as well. As they discover Mr. Nightmare’s horrible secret, they must outwit, outplay and survive to win over this comically horrible guy.
The story is filled with a lot of imagination, just enough “scary” to keep older readers enthralled but not too scary for even younger middle grade readers. The humor is very sly and parents are going to love it as much as the kids. There are several references to classics and pop culture icons that make the reading even more enjoyable. Overall, this is one that should have everyone dreaming about this book. Parents: there are some mildly scary parts but ony for kids with over active imaginations and if you have a child like that, you are so lucky!
Suze says
October 25, 2015 at 11:56 amThis sounds really good, great review!
Sandra Watts says
December 17, 2015 at 7:43 pmThis looks good. I appreciate your review. I added to my goodreads list.