Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Circus of Stolen Dreams by Lorelei Savaryn - ADVISABLE

Circus of Stolen Dreams by Lorelei Savaryn
, 304 pages. Philomel (Penguin), 2020. $17 

Content: G (mild danger) 

BUYING ADVISORY: EL – OPTIONAL, MS - ADVISABLE 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

Andrea’s little brother, Francis, has been missing for 3 years. Her parents are moving on, but Andrea can not let go. When she sneaks out of the house one night, she follows a glimmer in the woods – to a mysterious circus, full of children and of intriguing tents. Reverie: the Land of Dreams, it says. The price – just one dream or one memory. Andrea knows just what memory she wants to give, and she enters the circus, where she meets the Sandman, who is in charge, and Penny, who seems to want to be her friend. As she leans into the celebration, she can’t but think there is something important she has forgotten – something that her heart wants her to remember. 

Like the children who go to Pleasure Island in Pinocchio, the children in Reverie don’t realize they have given up something important. Circus of Stolen Dreams also reads dark, but it is a gentle way to hope that the kids who read it will think before they choose running away as the answer. 

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS

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