The Dreamer [Paperback]

Pam Munoz Ryan (Author), Peter Sis (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2012 | Age Range: 10 and up

Winner of the 2011 Pure Belpre Award for fiction now in an elegant paperback edition!

From the time he is a young boy, Neftali hears the call of a mysterious voice. He knows he must follow it--even when the neighborhood children taunt him, and when his harsh, authoritarian father ridicules him, and when he doubts himself. It leads him under the canopy of the lush rain forest, into the fearsome sea, and through the persistent Chilean rain, until finally, he discovers its source.

Combining elements of magical realism with biography, poetry, literary fiction, and sensorial, transporting illustrations, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís take readers on a rare journey of the heart and imagination.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 4–9—Readers enter the creative, sensitive mind of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet, in this beautifully written fictional biography. Ryan artfully meshes factual details with an absorbing story of a shy Chilean boy whose spirit develops and thrives despite his father's relentless negativity. Neruda, who was born Neftali Reyes, sees, hears, and feels poetry all around him from an early age. Luckily he finds understanding and encouragement from his stepmother and his uncle, whose humanitarian and liberal attitudes toward nature and the rights of the indigenous Mapuche people greatly influence his developing opinions. In early adulthood, Reyes starts using the pseudonym by which he becomes known, taking his last name from that of a famous Czechoslovakian poet. Ryan suggests that this was how he hid his activities from his father. Her poetic prose style totally dovetails with the subject. Interspersed with the text are poems that mimic Neruda's style and push readers to think imaginatively and visually. Sís's whimsical pen-and-ink pointillist illustrations enliven the presentation. Each chapter is preceded by three small drawings that hint at something to come. The perfect marriage of text and art offers an excellent introduction to one of the world's most famous poets. An appended author's note gives further insight into Neruda's beliefs and accomplishments. In addition there are excerpts from several of his poems and odes. This unusual selection would be a fine companion to Deborah Kogan Ray's To Go Singing Through the World (Farrar, 2006).—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Respinning the childhood of the widely beloved poet Pablo Neruda, Ryan and Sís collaborate to create a stirring, fictionalized portrait of a timid boy’s flowering artistry. Young Neftalí Reyes (Neruda’s real name) spends most of his time either dreamily pondering the world or cowering from his domineering father, who will brook no such idleness from his son. In early scenes, when the boy wanders rapt in a forest or spends a formative summer by the seashore, Ryan loads the narrative with vivid sensory details. And although it isn’t quite poetry, it eloquently evokes the sensation of experiencing the world as someone who savors the rhythms of words and gets lost in the intricate surprises of nature. The neat squares of Sís’ meticulously stippled illustrations, richly symbolic in their own right, complement and deepen the lyrical quality of the book. As Neftalí grows into a teen, he becomes increasingly aware of the plight of the indigenous Mapuche in his Chilean homeland, and Ryan does a remarkable job of integrating these themes of social injustice, neither overwhelming nor becoming secondary to Neftalí’s story. This book has all the feel of a classic, elegant and measured, but deeply rewarding and eminently readable. Ryan includes a small collection of Neruda’s poetry and a thoughtful endnote that delves into how she found the seeds for the story and sketches Neruda’s subsequent life and legacy. Grades 4-8. --Ian Chipman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks; Reprint edition (March 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439269989
• ISBN-13: 978-0439269988
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Children's Books > Travel & Cultures > Multicultural Stories > Hispanic & Latino

More About the Author

PAM Muñoz Ryan is the author of more that thirty books for young readers, including four beloved novels, Riding Freedom, Esperanza Rising, Becoming Naomi León, and Paint the Wind, which collectively have garnered, among countless accolades, the Pura Belpré Medal, the Jane Addams Award, and the Schneider Family Award. She lives in Southern California with her family. You can visit her at www.PamMunozRyan.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dreamy, Beautiful, Brilliant book April 7, 2010

By Nancy Mehegan VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

ENTER THE DREAM! Were you a dreamy kid? The type of kid that parents & teachers nagged to focus more? Do you have a child like that? If yes, you will love this book. Inspired by the life of a real poet in Chile, Pablo Neruda, the book's prose is dream-like and poetic. It is greatly enhanced by award-winning artist Peter Sís, whose delicate, drawings enhance the magical world. Finally a book that favors the right-brain people (in this left-brain culture).

The main character dreamily ponders the world while cowering from his domineering father. However, Neftali's beholding of nature, his sense of wonder and his limitless imagination cannot be bound. He persists in his dream-like approach to the world. INSPIRE YOUR DREAMY CHILD -- This book will inspire young readers, future poets and all right-brain people. It's courageous, unusual and unique.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Is there forgiveness for a well-intended but bad acting father? May 17, 2010

By Last Mango VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The message to follow your dreams is wonderful, making poets "cool", especially those from other countries is a great idea, and Pam Munoz Ryan's questions combined with Peter Sis' drawings are fantastic such as "Which is sharper? The hatchet that cuts down the dream? Or the scythe that clears a path for another?"

My lack of enthusiasm for the book is directly related to my having lived in Chile for six years and being married to a Chilean. Chile is an interesting land of contrasts. The literacy rate is high and the interest in politics and current events is also very high. However many, not all, Chileans consider reading "anti-social", something I was chided for regularly. Unlike in the book, there was no library at a seaside town. I never found a public library in the whole country, although, I heard vaguely that there was one in the capital. A magazine/book store would be more likely. My point is that there were many cultural things that made the father who he was. He was not Dave Pelzer's mother. College entrance exams are very tough in Chile and peasants, at least fifteen years ago when I was there, were very real which tends to make fathers want better for their children. Families regularly took month vacations to the beach and the "sink or swim" swimming method made a champion swimmer out of my own husband. These aren't the best parenting techniques, of course, but I guess I would have been more comfortable if the father hadn't been a complete villain.

Also, although not as important, I wish there had been one last editing by someone from Chile. Parrots and Flamingos that far south? Potato empanadas? Meat and cheese empanadas are as common as hot dogs and hamburgers here, but I've never heard of potato ones.

All that aside though, the book is an enjoyable, magical read that teachers could certainly use as fodder for creative writing papers and/or poetry units.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful introduction to the early life and work of Neruda June 11, 2010

By KidsReads

Format:Hardcover

Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet, wrote, "...my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests." In her fictionalized biography of him, Pam Muñoz Ryan asks, "Does a metamorphosis begin from the outside in? Or from the inside out?" THE DREAMER explores Neruda's childhood and the roots and inspirations of his poetry.

Neftalí Reyes was born to a domineering father, who wants his sons to be strong, powerful men of industry. But Neftalí and his older brother, Rodolfo, are creative souls more interested in books and music than math and business. Neftalí is shy, stuttering and unsure of himself, and feels most at home surrounded by nature or the many interesting objects he collects, like shiny keys, feathers and beautiful stones. His head is full of stories, and he is entranced by the rhythmic sounds of the forests, rivers and jungles. Though his stepmother tries to protect him, Neftalí is subject to his father's mood swings, strict rules and cruelty. As he grows up, inspired by his uncle, a progressive journalist and activist on behalf of the native Mapuche, Neftalí finds his voice and strength in the written word --- first in political essays and finally in poetry.

Ryan's prose is a lovely and dreamy parallel to Neruda's lovely and dreamy verses, and she tells Neftalí's story with compassion and beauty. Though Neftalí struggles with familial and social expectations, he is steadfast in his identity as someone who needs creative expression, especially through words. At times the story is dark, even harrowing; Neftalí's father forces him and his young sister to swim every day one summer in cold and strong waters, though they are both weak swimmers and terrified of drowning. But Ryan focuses on the power of imagination that Neftalí harnesses, and so the book remains optimistic and hopeful.

Though written for children, it is a story readers of all ages will find much value in: a tale of perseverance and poetry, family and power, art and identity, written in Ryan's sure and slightly unconventional hand. She asks her audience to ponder with Neftalí questions such as, "Where is the heaven of lost stories? Who spins the elaborate web that entraps the timid spirit? What wisdom does the eagle whisper to those who are learning to fly?" Peter Sis's drawings that accompany the tale are airy and fantastical --- a perfect illustration of Neftalí's thoughts and experiences.

THE DREAMER is a wonderful introduction to the early life and work of Neruda and includes an author's note at the end as well as a selection of his poems. But mostly this is a good story: a compelling and emotional look at a lonely and fanciful boy who grew up to be an important and visionary artist. Evocative, sensual and moving, it will surely inspire young readers to see the world in a new way and encourage them to learn more about Neruda, his native Chile, and poetry in general.