Lowry, Lois.
GOSSAMER
New York : Houghton Mifflin, 2006
IL 5-8, RL 5.4
ISBN 0618685502

(3 booktalks)

Consider the idea that objects retain memories.  A loved teddy bear might hold within its stuffing a vacation to the mountains, your first overnight at a friend’s house, or a time you had the flu and the animal brought comfort.  Now, imagine that there were creatures that just by touching your teddy bear, could bring about these memories and then weave them together into a story and give them back to you in your dreams.  Gossamer by Lois Lowry is a story where these dream creatures exist and through them you meet the characters of John, a boy who is in need of some good memories and comfort.  The Old Woman, who takes care of John. Toby, the trustworthy dog, and John’s mom, who is working to make a better life for John.  This beautiful fantasy will linger with you, in fact the story might just make it into your own dreams.   (New Hampshire Great Stone Face nominee, 2007-2008)

Booktalk #2

What’s a dream? A hint of something hoped for, a brief glimpse of the past or a fragment of a nightmare.  In Gossamer, Littlest, “dream-giver”, delivers bits of memories to two unsuspecting people in the hopes that they will be able to help each other overcome sadness in their lives. But will the Sinisteeds counteract the good with their nightmares? Some reality with a dash of fantasy makes this book a great read.  (Jean B. Bellavance for Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2007-2008)

Booktalk #3

Two creatures go to work in the silence of a house at night time. They move about carefully, silently, ever so lightly when touching the many objects, gathering feelings from the past and yesterday, and sounds and words long forgotten. Their job? To bestow the happiest memories in the form of dreams upon the sleeping inhabitants.

Who are they? We do not know for sure … they are invisible to humans. If these creatures delve too much upon the objects, they risk becoming sinisteeds, who bestow only nightmares.  If the inhabitants should be fearful or weak, they become the prime target of the sinisteed' evil intentions.  Littlest One is particularly good at touching.  She has what her mentor, Thin Elderly, says is a Gossamer touch, the most perfect, gentlest, barely-lingering touch for Dream Givers.  But Littlest One is still learning how to dissolve and bestow like the rest of the heap. Soon however, Thin Elderly and Littlest One discover, that the next victims are the inhabitants of the house to which they have been assigned! Can they save the poor boy and the old woman from the gathering horde of sinisteeds—can they get there in time and bestow the best of memories? Littlest One is afraid and rightly so as she has no idea of the sinisteed' influence. On the other hand, hardly anyone other than Thin Elderly and a few older ones in the heap know the danger of a horde.  Will Thin Elderly and Littlest One be ready for what feels like an imminent attack?  Just say the word, Sinisteeeeed to yourself. It is enough to make you shutter.