Awake and Dreaming

Awake and Dreaming. By Kit Pearson. Penguin, 2008. 240 pages. PB $7.99 ISBN 978-0143056379

Plot Summary: Eleven-year-old Theo lives with Rae, her puerile, narcissistic mother. Theo escapes the harshness of her poverty-infested life by reading. She especially loves books that are about families, and dreams of being a part of a warm, close-knit family. While on the ferry to Victoria, she meets the four children of the Kaldor family – John, Anna, Lisbeth, and Ben – and is embraced into their family, without question. As the months pass, members of the Kaldor family forget about Theo. This forgetting continues, until Theo becomes completely invisible to them, and she awakes, still on the ferry, with her mother.  Theo later forms a friendship with the Kaldor family and learns that they are far from perfect. 

Critical Review: Awake and Dreaming appeals to all types of readers, by showing the agency that is inherent in every person. Escaping from our problems provides only temporary relief. By tackling our problems head on, we can create a new, more vibrant life for ourselves and others. The circumstances of life are only temporary; there is always room to push beyond current circumstances. All that is needed is to hold the necessary motivation and willingness, to rise above one’s current predicament, and to claim whatever is desired.

Genre: Fantasy; Realistic Fiction

Reading/Interest Level: 9-12 years 

Awards: Governor General’s Literary Award (1997); The Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award (1997); Red Cedar Book Award (1998/1999); Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award (1999); CBC Young Canada Reads Winner

Reviews: Publishers Weekly (June 7, 1999), Booklist (June 15, 1997), School Library Journal (June 1, 1007),

Similar Materials: Lucy Boston’s The Children of Green Knowe; Penelope Lively’s The Ghost of Thomas Kempe; Janet Lunn’s Double Spell; Diana Wynne Jones’s The Time of the Ghost

Subjects/Themes: Ghost Stories, Child Abuse, Families, Reading, Loneliness

Character Names: Theo; Rae; John, Anna, Lisbeth and Ben Kaldor; Mr. and Mrs. Kaldor; Mr. Barker (Theo’s teacher); Ms. Cohen (the school librarian); Mrs. Mitic (a woman who lives in Theo’s apartment building); Aunt Sharon (Theo’s mother’s sister who lives in Victoria, and cares for Theo when her mother can’t); Skye (Theo’s friend from school); Cecily Stone (ghostly writer who Theo turns for comfort)

Author Website: http://www.kitpearson.com/

Brief Annotation: A tween girl dreams of a loving family, and these dreams temporarily become reality.