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Description edit
Where do dreams come from? What stealthy nighttime messengers are the guardians of our most deeply hidden hopes and our half-forgotten fears? Drawing on her rich imagination, two-time Newbery winner Lois Lowry confronts these questions and explores the conflicts between the gentle bits and... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
The Littlest One is a creature who gives dreams to people. She works at an old women's home. The old women takes in a little boy. The Littlest One trys to protect the boy from nightmares.
Characters/People edit
- Littlest One: The newest dream-giver is learning her tasks, first with Fastidious and then with Thin Elderly who enjoys her exuberance and appreciates her gossamer touch and special abilities to weave together memories.
- John: An 8 year old boy, abused by his father, has been placed in foster care. He's angry, frightened, and resists help with threats and violence, but responds to stories, and an old dog who offers him love.
- Young Woman: A former abused wife, trying to get her act together, so she can reclaim her son from foster care.
- The Woman: A retired teacher, arthritic, but kind and caring who is willing to take in an abused little boy, though she'd hoped for a girl. Knows how to accept, comfort, teach kindness and soothe the damaged little boy.
- Thin Elderly: Likes little ones, bored with his too quiet assignment.
- Most Ancient: Most Ancient no longer goes out dream giving.Instead he stays to assist, to arbitrate, and with his own sense of humor, likes to bid his dream-givers their own "Sweet Dreams."
- Strapping: Sent as penance, but also because of his skills and persistance to help a forlorn young woman, who is having trouble getting her act together, has lost her child, and is desparately lonely.
- Fastidious: Tired, crabby, impatient dream-giver. Doesn't like children or stairs, both of which make her ache.
- Toby: The Woman's dog. Faithful, always on the lookout for food, responds to John's needs
- Littlest One: A dream-giver. Rookie. Overcoming.
- Duane: John's father and the young woman's ex-husband.
Quotes edit
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“"Sweet Dreams"”
-Most Ancient -
“"What fills me?" she asked."Everything that you're a part of. Your own story fills you."”
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“"And you know what, Thin Elderly? Sad parts are important. If I ever get to train a new young dreamgiver, that's one of the things I'll teach: that you must include the sad parts, because they are part of the story, and they have to be part of the dreams."”
Littlest One -
“"Change means leaving things behind, and that's always sad."”
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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Through touching, they gather material: memories, colors, words once spoken, hints of scents and the tiniest fragments of forgotten sound. They collect pieces of the past, of long ago and of yesterday. They combine these things carefully, creating dreams. Then they insert the dreams as the humans (and sometimes animals, for occasionally they give dreams to pets, as well) sleep.
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Every human population has countless such colonies—invisible always—of these well-organized, attentive, and hard-working creatures who move silently through the nights at their task.
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'Who am I now?' 'Gossamer,'
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The act of dream insertion is called bestowal.
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'Flutter, flicker, and trickle; flutter, flicker, and trickle. Completely silly, if you ask me.
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'Sorry. I flutter up. I hover. I center. I gather. Then I aim. And I hold and hold and hold until I sneeze!'
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'The term is'—he lowered his voice and whispered the word—'Sinisteed. Don't ever say it aloud.'
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And there in the darkened bedroom, during a dream that by morning would be forgotten, the lonely woman became a girl and was kissed by a young soldier. At dawn she woke with a vague feeling of happiness.
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This gathering, this dwelling place where they slept now, heaped together, was only one, a relatively small one, of many. It was a small subcolony of dream-givers.
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There was a moon that night, and it just seemed the thing to do, dancing in a moonbeam and a cobweb.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
- Heap: Where all dream givers sleep by day.
- The Woman's House: The house where the elderly woman and Toby live. John stays here for a while. Littlest One used to give dreams here with Fastidious, but now she is here with Thin Elderly.
First Sentence edit
An owl called, its shuddering hoots repeating mournfully in the distance.
Table of Contents edit
The chapters are numbered 1 through 28.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Lois Lowry (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2006
ISBN: 0618685502
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2006
ISBN: 0618685502
Page Count: 144
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