A tale sparkling with imagination that plunges us into darkness then leaves us with hope's glimmer, Gossamer is the type of story I've come to expect from Lois Lowry, the author of the Newbery Medal winning novel,The Giver. Published in 2006, it is a short and spare novelette that the intended readership of 10-13 year olds will whistle through, probably finding it a page-turner experience, as I did. Part of the beauty of Lowry's writing talent is her ability to present weighty subjects with simplicity while offering up a completely fresh setting and complex characters. By enticing us with whimsical imaginary backdrops, she manages to pull the unsuspecting reader into places requiring mature depth of thought and emotion. In that sense her novels are tasty fare for the inquiring minds and hearts of coming of age young people in the intended readership group.

Gossamer is a tale with two interwoven story lines. A fantasy world and its characters are combined with often painfully realistic characters in a real world setting. The first story line concerns beings called Dream Givers, elemental entities who "collect" memories from humans by entering their homes at night while the humans are sleeping and touching items in the homes such as books, blankets, pictures, knickknacks...almost anything, and extracting the memories from the items to later be "bestowed", again through the act of touch, upon the sleepers in the form of dreams. In this way the Dream Givers influence human beings in a positive way and help them to remember the important positive aspects of their lives so that they can stay on a path of growth and happiness. In this tale we follow the training period of a very young, talented and compassionate Dream Giver called Littlest One. In the process of her training she and her teacher Thin Elderly are assigned to the home of a lonely retired teacher who has just opened her home to a foster child, eight year old John. John has been the victim of serious child abuse and he is in foster care waiting for his mother who was also a victim of abuse, to get her life together and prepare a safe home for him. The antagonists in the story are an evil type of Dream Giver called Sinisteeds that rather than bestowing dreams, come snarling and reeking into the sleep of humans to inflict nightmares. They seek to twist the minds and hearts of humans and make them lose their way on their life path. They thrive on misery. They pick at and magnify our dark secrets. They keep our pain fresh.

Littlest One is an adorable deceptively simple character filled with sweet, babyish innocence over a spirit of commitment, compassion, childish curiosity and courage. In my opinion, the unfolding of her story is the best part of the book and is why I really liked this book even though I felt it was too painful in other spots to make it what I would call a great book. Her teacher is also an interesting and well-drawn character. The boy, John, is a surly, difficult, smart-mouthed, sometimes cruel child that we can see is well on the road to becoming an abuser himself or a prison inmate or worse. He is drowning in sorrow, fear, pain, anger and loneliness and is closed down emotionally. His mother is fighting an uphill battle to regain control of her painful life and struggles with self-esteem issues, guilt and poverty. The foster care provider is gentle and intelligent and patient and extremely lonely herself. The lives of the Dream Givers and of the humans in the story intertwine and the relationship effects form the outcome.

I loved the fantasy world of the Dream Givers/Sinisteeds. It was refreshingly new and imaginative and like nothing I have encountered before in fantasy literature. While the story's outcome is perhaps predictable the character development was not and I enjoyed that. The human characters were well realized as well. I did not appreciate the depth of the descriptions of the child abuse to which the boy is subjected. They were too graphic, in my opinion, and the same effect could have been achieved with less detail. That would have turned this book from one which I found likable and interesting to one I loved.

I realize part of the book's power is the way in which it draws attention to the tragedy of child abuse and its long term implications but I question the need to illustrate it so starkly in a book that is, in part, essentially a fantasy and one written for children. Maybe I am a bit too sensitive but I would encourage parents to read this book themselves before offering it to their children, simply because the images will stay and they will chip away at innocence in a way that may ultimately be necessary but which you may want to maintain some control over in the lives of your own children. You may choose to be the one who discusses child abuse and evil with your children, rather than leaving it up to Lois Lowry. Maybe you'll want her help...but I would definitely want a hand in the process. It is for this reason that I can recommend this book but with reservations. It is well written, well realized and worthy of attention but I suggest it is best offered with a guiding hand.

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This review is written to honor National Library Week and is part of laurashrti's National Library Week Write-off 2008. I am grateful to my own public library in Appleton, Wisconsin where I found this interesting book when I was seeking out volumes two and three of The Giver trilogy. We are blessed with a large, well-stocked modern library with a truly wonderful children's department. I am disabled and on the day that I found this book, I was at the library with my two year old grandson. We had already chosen several children's books and I was in considerable pain from my arthritis. I found the books I was looking for in the library's excellent computer system and also found the title of Gossamer listed among the Lowry titles. My curiosity was piqued. I hobbled over to the shelves to find the books, little Oscar in tow, and frustratingly discovered that while the computer said they were in stock, the shelves suggested otherwise. I went to the children's librarian and explained that I was in too much pain to successfully bird-dog the books myself and she was kind enough to hunt them down and have them in my hands within five minutes. That's just one small reason that I am grateful to my local librarians and why I am happy to celebrate National Library Week.




Recommended: Yes