Dreamcatcher

Osofsky, Audrey

ISBN 10: 0531085880 ISBN 13: 9780531085882

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1992

Synopsis

Wrapped snugly in its handwoven cradleboard, a Ojibway infant from long ago watches contentedly as its family fishes, swims, gardens, and plays and then it drifts to sleep, dreaming of lovely things.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-4-- What was life like for an Ojibway child ``in a time long ago?'' For a baby, like the one at the center of this gentle and lyrical book, it means lying in a cradleboard at the center of family life, ``in the moon of the raspberries,'' while mother works, children play, and father returns with a canoe full of fish. For a big sister, it means helping with the berry-drying and watching grandmother fashion a toy. And it means fashioning a ``dream net'' from willow and nettle-stalk to hang at baby's head, where it catches dreams that even a big sister might fear, while letting good dreams--of sucking maple suger, dancing, running--come through. Young's pastels are vibrantly colored but as tender as the text. The faces in soft shadow or semi-profile could be Everychild's, but the beautifully filtered light belongs only to a woodland-and-water setting. The pages are bordered with a flower garland that might come from the folk art of many peoples. The artist's treatment emphasizes the universally human as well as the culturally particular in this empathic glimpse of Ojibway life. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

With a willow twig and nettle-stalk twine, an Ojibway baby's sister weaves a weblike ``dreamcatcher'' to hang above the crib and sift out bad dreams. The baby sleeps and wakes and sleeps again, the family busy around it. Young's unfocused, impressionistic pastels capture the simplicity of the infant's changing moods with shifts of color and hazy but expressive faces. The authentically scary bad dreams--evil-eyed white owl Kokokoo and a ``raggedy man...his birchbark mask glowing like a ghost''--catch in the net until, ``struck by morning light,'' they die. Some of the text is white, legible on the darker backgrounds but less so on pale spreads like one showing the father in his canoe. A quiet glimpse of family affection and other universals within a particular traditional culture. (Picture book. 0-4) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0531085880
• ISBN 13: 9780531085882
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Young Ed