Awake and Dreaming

by Kit Pearson

Overview

Theo and her young, irresponsible mother seem trapped in their miserable, poverty-stricken life. Theo dreams of belonging to a “real” family, and her dream seems to come true when she is mysteriously adopted by the large, warm Kaldor family.

But as time passes, the magic of Theo’s new life begins to fade, and soon she finds herself back with her mother. Were the Kaldors real or just a dream? And who is the shadowy figure who haunts Theo’s thoughts?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143186335
Publisher:	Tundra Book Group
Publication date:	09/04/2007
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	386 KB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kit Pearson worked as a librarian for many years before publishing her first novel, The Daring Game (1986). She went on to write the linked novels The Sky Is Falling (1989),Looking at the Moon (1991), and The Lights Go On Again (1993), published in 1999 as The Guests of War trilogy, and Awake and Dreaming (1996), which won the Governor General’s Award. Pearson lives in Victoria, close to Ross Bay Cemetery, one of the settings in Awake and Dreaming.

Editorial Reviews

The combination of her own desperate wishes and a dead writer's fantasy propel the nine-year-old heroine into a dream world--or does it? Ages 8-12. (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 4-7Wishes can come true, temporarily at least. Nine-year-old Theo desperately wants to be out of her gray, loveless existence and into the middle of a large and happy family like the ones she reads about in her wonderful library books. Often neglected by her young and immature mother, she is still reluctant to leave their Vancouver apartment and go to live with her aunt in Victoria. On the ferry trip, Theo makes a wish on the new moon and is amazed when it comes true. She wakes up as part of the perfect family, with nurturing and always happy parents and four caring siblings. Now she doesn't have to dance for money on the street or worry that her mother doesn't want her. But of course, it is too good to be true, and the magic doesn't last. While her real life isn't perfect like when she was "awake and dreaming," things are changing for the better and Theo is learning to be happy. Pearson deftly weaves fantasy and reality together into a charming novel much like Sylvia Cassedy did in Behind the Attic Wall (HarperCollins, 1983). Even minor characters are well developed, and this story is intriguing from start to finish. A mysterious ghost is carefully woven into the plot and into the resolution, but the focus of the book remains on Theo's very real concerns and emotions. As readers cheer for the child's happiness, they may also learn from her determination.Leigh Ann Jones, Carroll Middle School, Southlake, TX

School Library Journal

Theo, nine, has not had a gentle life. The joys of clean clothes, a warm bed, and enough to eat are elusive, and her too-young, borderline-abusive mother provides little emotional support or structure. Theo escapes via daydreams and voracious reading ("she remembered that the ugliest books in school libraries were often the best ones"). The heart of the book, set in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, is an awkwardly constructed fantasy sequence that places Theo in the center of a large and affectionate family, the Kaldors. When the dream ends, Theo finds the family—less idealized, with no answering memory of her—and also finds the ghost of the writer, who once lived in the Kaldor house, and who has an explanation for Theo's experiences "awake and dreaming." While parts of the tale are clumsily drawn, Theo's longings are unmistakably clear, and the shaky shifts in point of view won't matter to readers, for this is a real page-turner.

Pearson (The Lights Go On Again, 1994, etc.) has some lovely notions about the relationship between dreams and reality, the value of friends and family (however flawed its members), and the acts of reading and writing as talismans of hope.

Kirkus Reviews

"This is not a 'quiet' book. It is noisy with the most important kinds of struggle, because you and I face them every day: the quest to find our place in the world, to belong to a family and group of friends, to be loved." - Kenneth Oppel

"Pearson's gift is to always write straight from the inner well of childhood feeling." - Toronto Star

From the Publisher