McMann, Lisa.
WAKE
New York : Simon Pulse, 2008
IL YA
ISBN 1416953574

(2 booktalks)

Don't let me fall asleep.  Not when there are other people here.  I can't control it.  When they sleep, when they dream, I am drawn into their dream.  I am a spectator who can only stand and stare as the dreams become nightmares.  Sometimes the dreams are nice and I don't mind that.  But usually they are horrible and I don't want to be in them.  The worst one is from someone who lives near me.  I have to avoid that house.  I have to stay out of that dream.

Booktalk #2

Close your eyes.  Try to remember your best dream.  The one that when you woke up, you wanted to go right back to sleep and see what happened next.  The one that when you tried to explain how awesome it was to someone, you just couldn't find the words.  Now try to remember your weirdest dream.  The one where everyone was talking backwards or had extra toes.  When you woke up, you had to count your fingers and look around you, just to make sure no one else saw the odd stuff that was floating around in your head.  Ok, now remember your worst dream, worst nightmare.  The one you tried to wake up from, and when you sat up in bed, you were shivering, or even screaming.  The one you never ever wanted to have again, but just couldn't avoid thinking about.

Open your eyes!  Don't worry, all those dreams are safe in your head, unless you fall asleep next to 17 year old Janie.  Janie is a dreamcatcher, has been since she was 8.  She slips in and out people's dreams and can do nothing but sit there and witness all the good, the weird and the very scary.  She can't control it, all she can do it try to finish her senior year of high school, stay out of the way of her alcoholic mother and avoid anyone who looks sleepy.  But this year isn't going quite so smoothly, especially when Cabel, stoner turned dreamboat, enters her life, and she enters the dream of a seriously twisted stranger.  Janie just wants to move on and move out, wants to get to the bottom of the nightmare, and can't help but falling head of heels for the silent and dreamy Cabel.

Read Wake by Lisa McMann, and have sweet dreams! ("Jacqueline Barry" <jacqueline.barry@gmail.com>)