April 11, 2011

The Dreamer - by Pam Munoz Ryan & Peter Sis

This is the beautiful, sad, hopeful, lyrical true story of the childhood of poet Pablo Neruda.  It's a story of courage, of a boy who never fit in, whose father was embarrassed of him, and who is never allowed to be what or who he wants to be.  He hangs in there, though, and eventually finds his own way, never losing hope, and never giving up on his dreams.  This biography focuses on Neruda's childhood and his unusual interests in nature and words, which anyone who has read his excellent poetry would have expected.  It's a guide for young poets, hopers, dreamers, and misfits.

This book is a physical pleasure to read.  Peter Sis filled it with amazing drawings in his typical pointillistic style, which is as much a selling point as the writing.  Poetry is mixed in throughout the chapters, and there is a short collection of Neruda's poetry at the end.  The writing is in dark green ink, Neruda's favorite color to write in, which is unusual and strangely calming to read.  This is such a wonderful book, it makes me happy just to think about it, which is something.

3 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

Do you think students will like this? It was not one I cared for, so it's interesting to hear how much you liked it.

Mister K said...

I've had one student read and enjoy it, but we'll see what the general consesus is eventually. I've long loved the work of the author, illustrator, and the poet Neruda, so I was fated to love this book...

Anonymous said...

I just finished this and loved it. I loved the design of the pages and the message of hope and dreams.