Book Review of Lois Lowry's Gossamer

A quiet day of rain and cool weather means only one thing for me: reading!  It is gloomy, damp and dreary, so the best thing in the world is to curl up on the sofa under a bright light with a great book.  I am so lucky to be a high school librarian--it means that I have access to more books than I could EVER read.  In the case of my high school, literary thousands.  


Wait, it gets even better!  The wonderful librarian who was there before me (25 years) has been volunteering her time to help me get the books in the correct Dewey order.  Straightening shelves and putting books in order is one of her favorite jobs, so I can't feel very guilty about the amount of work she's done in the last two weeks.  I am so very grateful to her for helping.  I shouldn't even say helping, she is doing it almost completely alone as I've been busy with classes and teaching.  

Photo from Amazon.com

What else has Miss Pat done?  Recommend books, of course.  She hands me one or two every day.  At this rate, I won't even catch up with her recommendations!  But, Friday was relatively quiet, especially since we didn't have a football game--it was Thursday night--and I was exhausted from having worked the game.  So, I managed to find a quiet corner and began one of those books: Gossamer by Lois Lowry.  

Littlest One is a tiny creature learning her job of giving dreams to humans. Each night she and her teacher, Thin Elderly, visit an old woman's home where she softly touches beloved objects, gathering happy memories. Littlest One pieces these bits together and presents them to her sleeping human in the form of pleasant dreams. But the dreaded Sinisteeds, dark fearsome creatures that plague their victims with nightmares, are always at work against the dreamgivers. When the old woman takes in John, an angry foster child with a troubled past, the Sinisteeds choose him as their next victim. (Blurb from booksamillion.com). What I really enjoyed about the book is the way Lowry switches from what the woman and John are doing to what Littlest One and Thin Elderly are doing.  She also does a fabulous job of connecting the dreams that the creatures give to the humans with the humans' behaviors and dialogue.  It's a small book that is an easy read.  In fact, I finished it in just a few hours.  I started it at school Friday afternoon and brought it home to finish up before supper.  I'd definitely recommend it to many of the students, especially those who enjoy fantasy.  However those who may not generally choose fantasy may still enjoy this novella simply because it's so short.  There's no big commitment as with the majority of fantasies, which are usually quite long.  


I've read a few of Lowry's books and have been very happy with each one.  She's a versatile writer with several awards for some of her earlier books.  I truly enjoy it when a student discovers her work as I know that he or she will be hooked!


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