The Dreamer

A review by Bill Landau

Ryan, Pam Munoz. The Dreamer. New York: Scholastic Press, 2010.

A helium-filled balloon will continue to rise unless a weight or an apposing force pulls the balloon away from its natural upward direction.

Neftali was much like a helium-filled balloon. He was a dreamer who delighted in the simple pleasures of childhood. He floated through life, reveling in his collection of stones and feathers. A pinecone was one of his favorite possessions. He delighted in the written word and his imagination allowed his spirit to soar. But there was an opposing force in Neftali’s life—the one person who constantly pulled Neftali’s “balloon” back to earth was his father. Father had big plans for his son and none of those plans coincided with what Neftali had in mind for himself.

Pam Munoz Ryan has created a rich and powerful story of a young boy’s quest to try to please his father, yet stay true to himself. Ryan, along with illustrator Peter Sis, has created a sensitive masterpiece that is both aesthetically pleasing and lyrically exquisite. The language of the book flows like music, inserting passages, poems and complimentary illustrations along the way. Neftali’s thoughts of inadequacy and his desire to be accepted by his father are understandable and real, making it easy for the reader to empathize with the young man.

As far as the development of characters, Ryan does an excellent job of showing and not telling so the reader can get to know the main characters as living, breathing people. On page 108, instead of merely stating that Neftali found a pinecone, we are treated to a visual description of what he found fascinating about the pinecone. He talks about luminescence of the sap that dotted the treasure and how when it was turned upside-down, it looked like a “cascade of miniature umbrellas.” To give us a further glimpse into the inner goodness of the boy, we read how Neftali paused, gazed up at the tree from whence the pinecone fell, and whispered a simple “thank you” in gratitude.

Ryan also uses her gifted command of vocabulary by putting nature’s sounds into words. Page 163 has an example where the author was able to assemble letters to exactly replicate the exploding sound of a wave breaking, followed by the roiling of sand and water, and completed with the hissssss of the last of the wave spreading over the sand. If you’ve ever stood on a beach before, you will agree she succeeded in translating the sounds of nature by choosing the correct letters of the alphabet and arranging them in proper order.

This book is a gift from beginning to end. The characters, plot, illustrations, setting and the uplifting ending create a unity in the work that come together to support each other. While a book like this would be enjoyed by readers of all ages, the vocabulary points toward 4^th through 6^th graders as a primary audience.

In the end, Neftali creates a pen name so as not to bring embarrassment to his father. It is then that the reader realizes this gifted, sensitive boy is none other than famed Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. It is then we also realize how important it is not to be an apposing force on anyone in our lives. We never know what creative genius we may stifle by being a counter-weight to a soaring balloon.