Dreamspeaker [Unabridged] [Paperback]

Anne Cameron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2005

First a multiple award-winning film produced for television, then a novel and winner of the 1978 Gibson Literary Award, then a perennial best-seller, Dreamspeaker is the powerful and deeply moving story of a boy caught between two worlds, who learns too late the healing power of faith and love. In a desperate attempt to escape the institution where he has been committed and to exorcise the unnamed evil that haunts him, Peter Baxter runs deep into the forests of British Columbia. Hungry, injured, and pursued by inescapable horror, Peter is rescued by an old Native Dreamspeaker and his mute companion. Through their teachings, Peter discovers the power of the Indian spirit world and the courage to face his terror alone.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Canadian Materials Rating: ****/4
"Anne Cameron first wrote Dreamspeaker as a film script. The 1967 movie by the same name, directed by Claude Jutra, won seven Canadian film awards and was subsequently telecast on the American Public Broadcasting System and on the British Broadcasting Corporation. Then Cameron wrote the story as a novel, one which has been recommended as supplementary reading in a number of school systems across Canada and is on the curriculum of Nipissing University in North Bay and the First Nations University of Canada.
Highly Recommended."
-Ruth Latta, Canadian Materials (June 24, 2005) (Canadian Materials )

"Dreamspeaker is a novel that crosses adult and children's literature boundaries in multiple ways...I would recommend that any adult who gives Dreamspeaker to a child read it along with the child and be more than prepared to discuss, laugh with, and cry over this remarkable novel." ---Norah Bowman, prairiefire

About the Author

Anne Cameron was born in Nanaimo, BC. She began writing at an early age, starting with theatre scripts and screenplays. In 1979, her film Dreamspeaker, directed by Claude Jutra, won seven Canadian Film Awards, including best script. After being published as a novel, Dreamspeaker went on to win the Gibson Award for Literature. She has published more than 30 books, including the underground classic Daughters of Copper Woman, its sequel, Dzelarhons, novels, stories, poems and legends - for adults and children. Her most recent novels are Family Resemblances, Hardscratch Row, and a new, revised edition of Daughters of Copper Woman. She lives in Tahsis, BC

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Harbour; 1st Harbour Pub. Ed edition (April 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550173642
• ISBN-13: 978-1550173642
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,371,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Multicultural Stories > Native People (Canada)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An alternative view of what psychiatry calls mental illness, December 1, 1998

By 

[e-mail]; Roy Hunter (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamspeaker (Paperback)

I first read this book ten years ago and instanlty loved it. I took my time about buying a copy, and it went out of print. I'm correcting that mistake today! The book is about a boy who, from time to time, experiences what modern mainstream psychiatry would call psychotic events (not to imply that those people could ever agree upon a diagnosis). He has had contact with social services and the mental health profession...no luck. He then runs into a native shaman. One of the definitions of "shaman" in the dictionary I have here is: one who "divines the hidden." The shaman teaches the boy that his episodes are not symptoms of mental illness, but symptoms of being one of "the chosen." If you think street people are crazy, if you think crazy people should be at least fixed, and probably locked-up in the process, if you own stock in the drug company which make lithium...this book my help.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We are not all the same..., July 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Dreamspeaker (Paperback)

Over the last fourteen years, I have lent out each of the 8 copies of this novel that I have owned...I am still waiting to get ANY of them back. This is a simple (and short) story of a boy trying to find where he belongs and how modern day society, with its rules and regulations, keeps thwarting his efforts. This novel is an excellent expose of the frailties of a society ruled by bureaucracy and conformity, instead of common sense and compassion. It is also a superb metaphor for the alienation and suppression of self that is a result of our current society and its domination by "big businesses". This novel poignantly attests to the fact that we are not all the same and the same answer does not work for everyone. In many ways, this novel explores the same issues as Pink Floyd's classic album, "The Wall"

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting story, August 29, 2006

By 

Sheldon Starr (Happily remarried, Ontario) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreamspeaker (Paperback)

I first saw this as a movie on CBC's "For The Record" film series in the summer of 1977. I was hooked into the story as its many elements and circumstances paralleled my own young life. I grew up in group homes and foster homes as an aboriginal ward of various child care agencies. I didn't understand the complexities of personal identity until later in my life but this story became the catalyst of change for me. I started exploring my aboriginal roots after seeing this film and turned what was a hopeful and beautiful story that ended horribly into a long journey on my path to peace and acceptance of my aboriginal roots. Today I am a proud father of two children who I recently took to a traditional powwow for a weekend of camping and dancing to the drum with our native brothers and sisters.

I remember how struck with anguish I was with tears running down my face at the end of the film but I was also hopeful and determined not to let this happen to me. I highly recommend this story to everyone and I hope they have the courage to finish it to its wrenching conclusion.