Gossamer Book

Two-time Newbery Award winner, Lois Lowry, explores the bits of life that come alive in dreams, and the darker horrors that find their form in nightmares.

Where do dreams come from? What stealthy nighttime messengers are the guardians of our most deeply hidden hopes and our half-forgotten fears? In a haunting story that tiptoes between reality and imagination, two people a lonely, sensitive woman and a damaged, angry boy face their own histories and discover what they can be to each other, renewed by the strength that comes from a tiny, caring creature they will never see.

Child Magazine

There is method to the madness of dreams -- or so kids will believe after falling under the spell of this superbly imaginative story. A dream-giver whose "touch was like gossamer," Littlest One hails from a race of beings who bestow healing dreams patched together from memory fragments found in sleepers' belongings. Assigned to help a troubled foster child and his elderly guardian, this novice dream-giver must do battle with "sinisteeds" who create nightmares from "hidden things, old guilts, and failings." With one foot in the real world and the other in fantasy, beloved author Lowry reaches a broad spectrum of readers with this deftly spun reverie on courage and the power of love. (Ages 8 to 12)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2006