The Dreamer

Ryan, Pam Muñoz, and Peter Sís. The dreamer. New York: Scholastic Press, 2010.

Plot Summary:

The Dreamer shares a fictional story of the world famous poet, Pablo Neruda. While growing up, Neftali is ridiculed and teased by peers and family members. Neftali always had a mind for poetry and literature, but his interests were not important to his authoritarian father. With help from his stepmother, uncle, and others close to him, Neftali is finally able to life a life he enjoys, surrounded by poetry.

Critical Analysis:

The Dreamer, written by Paul Munoz Ryan and illustrated by Peter Sis, shares a wonderfully touching and emotional adaptation of Pablo Neruda’s childhood. The story takes place in Temuco, Chile, where young Neftali is badgered by his peers and father for being imaginative and shy. Neftali enjoys reading, writing, learning new words, daydreaming, and collecting treasures from nature. The characters, including Neftali, his siblings, parents and friends seem real and unexaggerated to the reader. Neftali’s authoritarian father successfully foils the character of Neftali, who is reserved and free. Neftali’s father works in the temperate forest, while his mother stays home to care for the children. Although the characters in the story rarely interact with those from other cultures, the story paints an accurate portrait of life in Chile.

Many cultural markers are hidden within the pages of this story. While in the forest with his father, Neftali encounters a Chucao bird, native to Chile. According to folk lore, the Chucao bird brings the listener good luck depending on which side of his body the listener hears the bird’s call. Neftali also finds beetles, spiders, and other insects native to Chile. Another cultural marker in The Dreamer is the sport known to us a soccer. Neftali’s father encourages him to build strength by playing futbol with the neighborhood children. Neftali and his family also enjoy many Chilean meals, including “las empanadas y el bistec” or steak and onions.

Peter Sis’ whimsical illustrations paired with the poetry of Pablo Neruda bring the reader inspiration and encouragement. The poetry questions character, intentions, and the value of conflict. Although this book is over 350 pages, the large and generously spaced font makes for an easy and enjoyable read. Readers are sure to enjoy this fictional adaptation of Pablo Neruda’s childhood.

Reviews:

Booklist:

Respinning the childhood of the widely beloved poet Pablo Neruda, Ryan and Sís collaborate to create a stirring, fictionalized portrait of a timid boy’s flowering artistry. Young Neftalí Reyes (Neruda’s real name) spends most of his time either dreamily pondering the world or cowering from his domineering father, who will brook no such idleness from his son. In early scenes, when the boy wanders rapt in a forest or spends a formative summer by the seashore, Ryan loads the narrative with vivid sensory details. And although it isn’t quite poetry, it eloquently evokes the sensation of experiencing the world as someone who savors the rhythms of words and gets lost in the intricate surprises of nature. The neat squares of Sís’ meticulously stippled illustrations, richly symbolic in their own right, complement and deepen the lyrical quality of the book. As Neftalí grows into a teen, he becomes increasingly aware of the plight of the indigenous Mapuche in his Chilean homeland, and Ryan does a remarkable job of integrating these themes of social injustice, neither overwhelming nor becoming secondary to Neftalí’s story. This book has all the feel of a classic, elegant and measured, but deeply rewarding and eminently readable. Ryan includes a small collection of Neruda’s poetry and a thoughtful endnote that delves into how she found the seeds for the story and sketches Neruda’s subsequent life and legacy.

Kirkus:

Ryan's fictional evocation of the boy who would become Pablo Neruda is rich, resonant and enchanting. Simple adventures reveal young Neftalí's painful shyness and spirited determination, his stepmother's love and his siblings' affection and his longing for connection with his formidable, disapproving father. The narrative captures as well rain falling in Temuco, the Chilean town where he was raised, and his first encounters with the forest and the ocean. Childhood moments, gracefully re-created, offer a glimpse of a poet-to-be who treasures stories hidden in objects and who recognizes the delicate mutability of the visible world, while the roots of Neruda's political beliefs are implied in the boy's encounters with struggles for social justice around him. Lines from a poem by Ryan along with Sís's art emphasize scenes and introduce chapters, perfectly conveying the young hero's dreamy questioning. The illustrator's trademark drawings deliver a feeling of boundless thought and imagination, suggesting, with whimsy and warmth, Neftalí's continual transformation of the everyday world into something transcendent. A brief selection of Neruda's poems (in translation), a bibliography and an author's note enrich an inviting and already splendid, beautifully presented work.

Awards:

Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, 2011 Winner United States

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, 2010 Honor Book Fiction and Poetry United States

Children’s Literature Council of Southern California Book Award, 2011 Winner United States

Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award, 2009 Gold Later School Years United States

PEN Center USA Literary Award, 2011 Winner Children's/Young Adult United States

Prize for Design and Printing, 2011 Third Place Children's Trade Young Adult Hardcover Illustrated United States

Pura Belpre Award, 2011 Winner Author United States

School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books, 2011 Nominee United States

Connections:

Use this book in a study of fictional biographies, poets, or Pable Neruda. The book will encourage children to live out their dreams, regardless of what peers and family members may advise.

Check out the following titles also about Pable Neruda for children:

Brown, Monica, and Julie Paschkis. Pablo Neruda: poet of the people. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2011.

When I was a boy Neruda called me Policarpo. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2006.

Neruda, Pablo, and Teo Puebla. Pablo Neruda for children. Madrid: Susaeta, 2000.

Ray, Deborah Kogan. To go singing through the world: the childhood of Pablo Neruda. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.