Gossamer (Hardcover)

by Lois Lowry (Author) "An owl called, its shuddering hoots repeating mournfully in the distance..." (more)
Key Phrases: attic stairs, Thin Elderly, Most Ancient, Littlest One

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7 Readers first meet the dream-givers as they creep around a dark house in the middle of the night where an old woman and a dog named Toby are sleeping. Littlest was very small, new to the work, energetic and curious. Fastidious was tired, impatient, and had a headache. Littlest is soon paired with a new partner, Thin Elderly, who is a much better guide and teacher than Fastidious was. They are benevolent beings who visit humans (and pets, too) at night. They handle objects, gather memories, and give them back in the form of happy dreams that comfort and help those they're assigned to. The dream-givers' counterparts are the strong and wicked Sinisteeds, who inflict nightmares and sometimes travel in frightening Hordes. And the humans that Littlest and Thin Elderly care for do need help and protection from bad dreams. The old woman is lonely and has taken in a foster child named John, who's living apart from an abusive father and the fragile mother who desperately wants him back. Lowry's prose is simple and clear. This carefully plotted fantasy has inner logic and conviction. Readers will identify with Littlest, who is discovering her own special talents (her touch is so sensitive and delicate that she is renamed Gossamer). John, who starts his stay in the house with anger and violence, will draw a special kind of sympathy, too. Lowry acknowledges evil in the world, yet still conveys hope and large measures of tenderness. While not quite as compelling as The Giver (Houghton, 1993), this is a beautiful novel with an intriguing premise. Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Littlest One is a delicate, invisible spirit who is in training to be a dream-giver, learning to blend fragments of happy memories with fragile details of daily life for people as they sleep. She helps a tormented foster child at night, bestowing healing memories in his dreams. He remembers a button, a broken seashell on a shelf, a book left open, images that fight the sinister Hordes that torment him with nightmares of his father's vicious abuse. Lowry's plain, poetic words speak directly to children about the powerful, ordinary things in everyday life, such as the boy's memory of a baseball game ("the curved line of stitches on the ball and then the high thwacking sound of the hit"); the feel of his dog's silky, warm fur; and the thump of the dog's tail against the floor. Pair this fantasy with Valerie Worth's All the Small Poems (1995) and with Katherine Paterson's realistic novel, The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978), about an abused child in loving foster care. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (April 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618685502
• ISBN-13: 978-0618685509
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #100,510 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soft to the touch, May 1, 2006

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Lois Lowry is my comfort blanket. When you pick up a Lois Lowry book (and it really doesn't matter if it was "Anastasia Krupnik" or the book I will discuss with you now) you are blessed with the knowledge that this book will fufill the following requirements: It will be good. It will be interesting. It will be wholly original. Lowry has never tapped into our subconscious oddities quite like other authors (like Diana Wynne Jones) have. She doesn't need to. Her books are perfectly thought out little worlds. If you are lucky, they may have some fantastical elements to them, but rather than stand out from the text these elements are as natural as can be. Lowry makes you believe in a kind of real-world magic. And no book better illustrates that idea than the remarkable little, "Gossamer". A comfortable amalgamation of the fantastical and the all-too real, it's one of those rare stories that can claim to have both grit and charm.

An old woman lives with her dog, all by herself, in a two-story house. Unbeknownst to her, she is visited nightly (as are we all) by creatures that make us their business. In this particular case, two such creatures have visited the old woman. One is an old hand at the work they are going to do. The other is known simply as Littlest One. She is sprightly and curious and filled to brimming with questions. By night, these creatures gather the memories they find attached to objects around the home and create dreams out of them. These they bestow to the residents of the home. Only now, the old woman is taking in a foster child for a time. An angry eight-year-old boy with an abusive past and who's dark thoughts prove irresistible to the Sinisteeds. Sinisteeds are creatures that provoke dark nightmares in their dreamers, causing damage to their psyche and a whole lotta pain. Now Littlest must find a way to strengthen the boy who has attracted these creatures so that he can be strong enough to face up to his own ugly memories.

Of course, for all the fantastical dream-creature-like storylines, the real heart of this tale is in the story of the old woman, the boy, and the boy's mother. It's a very real tale too. The boy's mother has gotten out of an abusive relationship and is trying to piece her life together enough to take custody of her son again. And leave it Lowry to get me to tear up when the woman finally gets a good job in an elementary school. I don't tear up over children's books unless the writing is particularly phenomenal.

Good fantasy speaks beyond the magic and fantastical elements of any given tale. Because she has tied in a story of abuse to one of the healing power of dreams, Lowry's story plays out rather beautifully. No mention is made of the fact that, medically speaking, if a person does not dream they go insane. The proof is before your eyes instead. Lowry also takes a rather nice poke at those adults that live in homes that look like they've come out of a magazine (all chrome and glass) but haven't a single homey or personal object in the joint. Pity the poor dream creatures that have to deal with THOSE people.

Even when Lowry is off her game (some might make that argument with "Messenger"), she still has her finger firmly on the pulse of her plot, characters, and setting. There's a straightforward intelligence to her books that children and adults everywhere have come to trust. I don't suppose I could call, "Gossamer" her finest work, but it's a lovely example of the patient storytelling and excellent plotting that we've come to expect of her. It is undoubtedly one of the best books for children in 2006. A wonderful metaphorical tale.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some Violence as well, April 27, 2006

By	Jeremy (Willoughby Hills, Ohio) - See all my reviews

I found this book to be very good, but John's nightmares of being abused by his father are somewhat graphic, and certainly not appropriate for all readers. He dreams of his father making him eat dog food and smearing his face in it as a 2 year old, and of his father repeatedly hitting his mother. I really liked the book, but one should be aware of its graphic content in places. Still, a very good read!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So good it gave me goose-bumps, September 19, 2006

By	B. Claypole White (Hillsborough, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My 11 year old son and I listened to Gossamer driving to and from school. But then we couldn't bear to leave the story behind, so spent the rest of the afternoon huddled around the tape deck. What an enchanting coming of age story. Yes, there is darkness and violence, but such feeling of hope. I cried through the last chapter. Wow. This is an incredible book. And beautifully read by Ms Twomey. I was especially drawn to the idea that so much can be experienced through touch. Seems to me it's the sense most writers underplay. And the writing is so simple, yet so powerful. I would give Gossamer more than 5 stars if I could.