My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Lowry’s understanding of how to pack a message or a little self-help into children’s novels continues to amaze me. Too often in books, the message is simply spoken by one character to another, a la Glinda’s “You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas […but you] had to learn it for [your]self.” (The ending did skate a little too close to that for me, but the bulk of the work is more subtle and respectful of the reader.) By making the plot the message here and in other books, Lowry allows young readers to decide for themselves whether and how much to adopt the message for themselves. She is inspirational, not didactic. Here, the struggles of an abused boy and the individuals who want to help him may be fodder for anyone trying to cope with their own bad dreams.
