Dreambender

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Pub Date 01 Mar 2016 | Archive Date 14 Mar 2016

Description

Everyone in the City is assigned a job by the choosers—keeper, catcher, computer. Callie Crawford is a computer. She works with numbers: putting them together, taking them apart. Her work is important, but sometimes she wants more. Jeremy Finn is a dreambender. His job is to adjust people's dreams. He and others like him quietly remove thoughts of music and art to keep the people in the City from becoming too focused on themselves and their own feelings rather than on the world. They need to keep the world safe from another Warming. But Jeremy thinks music is beautiful, and when he pops into a dream of Callie singing, he becomes fascinated with her. He begins to wonder if there is more to life than being safe. Defying his community and the role they have established for him, he sets off to find her in the real world. Together, they will challenge their world's expectations. But how far will they go to achieve their own dreams?

Everyone in the City is assigned a job by the choosers—keeper, catcher, computer. Callie Crawford is a computer. She works with numbers: putting them together, taking them apart. Her work is...


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* Trade, library, and consumer advertising * ARC distribution at ALA Midwinter and via NetGalley/Edelweiss * Social media campaign across all Albert Whitman & Company profiles * Select author...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780807517253
PRICE $16.99 (USD)

Average rating from 31 members


Featured Reviews

I would like to thank Albert Whitman & Company + NetGalley for a copy of this e-ARC to review. Though I received this ebook for free, that has no impact upon the honesty of my review.

Goodreads Teaser: "Everyone in the City is assigned a job by the choosers--keeper, catcher, computer. Callie Crawford is a computer. She works with numbers: putting them together, taking them apart. Her work is important, but sometimes she wants more. Jeremy Finn is a dreambender. His job is to adjust people's dreams. He and others like him quietly remove thoughts of music and art to keep the people in the City from becoming too focused on themselves and their own feelings rather than on the world. They need to keep the world safe from another Warming. But Jeremy thinks music is beautiful, and when he pops into a dream of Callie singing, he becomes fascinated with her. He begins to wonder if there is more to life than being safe. Defying his community and the role they have established for him, he sets off to find her in the real world. Together, they will challenge their world's expectations. But how far will they go to achieve their own dreams?"

Beautiful ideas that tempt the imagination while teaching meaningful lessons at the same time. The lessons aren't traditional per se, but rather built into the story and crafted to sink into the reader's conscious and subconscious as they read.

Jeremy is a character most kids will relate to on one level or another. Between his incessant questions and his clear promise of great talent he appeals to younger readers and adults alike. Callie is more of an adult character, though she is a major player in this story, and one of the main instruments through which the life lessons are shared. But her sensation of being trapped in a job she doesn't have any passion for speaks to most adults I'd expect. Her journey is her lesson for readers of all ages.

Though couched in a futuristic story, the ideas shared in this book are valid for readers of any generation. Mr. Kidd does an excellent job of crafting a tale to engage readers, young and old, and building important life lessons into the very bones of the story. The world he created is a beautifully woven mix of reality and fantasy, but not so far out that it becomes difficult to imagine. If anything he's made it to easy to imagine, and that simply makes the messages instilled within that much more powerful. Without a doubt this book should become a core requirement for all middle school reading lists. Indeed every library, both school and public, should have at least one copy; they should plan for multiple copies given how popular it is bound to become!

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Should your destiny be foretold ?

How far do you go when you are told what you like and what you want and no one seems to understand when you just want to be free to decide your own destiny. Do we challenge our world's expectations which have always been based on the failures of the past, going against everything we know to be right or do we bow down to society and its rules for a safer, yet lifeless existence. Parents should understand but they don't see what we see and don't listen to the same beat of life. What do you do? This book is very well written for both young and not so young minds to read easily and understand but challenging enough to make the reader wonder and question at societies directions for the youth of the day. Generally, just a very nice read.
Review copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Callie is a computer in the City. She works with numbers and she shouldn't dare to dream of anything more, especially not singing...but she does. Jeremy is a dreambender in the Meadow. He works in people's dreams, changing them and, in turn, changing the dreamer. The dreambenders maintain order. They keep peace among the people and prevent dangerous dreams from taking hold. Dangerous dreams like singing.

Jeremy also asks a lot of questions. And soon he questions the very idea of dreambending. He has met the singer in her dreams and it doesn't seem so dangerous to him. What would happen if no one patrolled the dreams? What would happen if Callie was allowed to sing?

"Dreambender" written by Ronald Kidd is a dystopian novel reminiscent of "The Giver". The oppressive government (dreambenders) seek to control the City dwellers by manipulating dreams. While the concept is interesting and this world could be incredible, the story didn't quite make it to that level.. Too much time is spent preaching about the morality of manipulating a person for the greater good, leaving the reader to feel as though they are being taught a lesson. Subtlety is not the strong point of this novel, and neither is character development or pacing. The characters feel flat and the story rushed. There are too many big ideas going on with none of them properly developed.

While some may enjoy this book, there are better dystopian novels available for middle-grade readers.

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I thoroughly enjoyed Dreambender by Ronald Kidd and it's clever story. There are a lot of post-apocalyptic novels available and a lot of them are pretty similar. On the surface, this novel seems to be another book in that genre. However, Dreambender was different for me. I enjoyed learning about the different jobs in the society and watching Jeremy learn and discover what is important to him. I enjoyed his journey to find truth and peace in a "safe" world. Beautiful writing and beautiful message.

Like a few other reviews, I too would have liked to see more at the end of the novel. It felt rushed. But overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend Dreambender.

Review copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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You don’t know me. You don’t see me. But I am there. Watching. Helping. Bending your dreams. –Dreambender by Ronald Kidd

After a catastrophic event called “The Warming” destroys Earth as we know it. Life has begun again, but with a very different structure that is guided by “The Plan”. The plan is a specific path and rules that were created to keep the world from another “Warming,” and to help keep the people and the world safe. There are no machines, no music, no arts, nothing frivolous or creative is allowed.

The people are divided into two separate groups that do not mingle and are separated by a wilderness called The Between. One group lives in “The City” and have no idea that there is anyone else out there. They live a very structured existence where they are directed into an appropriate occupation based on their skills and the community’s needs. There are rules, laws, curfews, and watchers who keep things in line. The people wake up go to work, go home and start again the next day.

In “The Meadow” live the other group of people called Dreambenders. Their job is to visit the dreams of the city people each night and make sure that their dreams are in line with the goals of “The Plan”. If they do not align with the plan or show signs of ideas that would draw the people into frivolity, hope or creativity, it is the Dreambenders’ job to change their dreams and help guide their thoughts back into line. Callie is from the city; her role is as a computer. Her job is to work with numbers. She lives with her family, follows the rules, and knows her place in the community. But in her dreams she is beginning to feel differently.

Jeremy is a new Dreambender from the Meadow, and he knows the rules: “Never meet the dreamer. Never harm the dreamer. Always follow the plan.” He is a natural, and quickly finds that bending dreams is something he enjoys and is good at. The others in his community see that he has a gift, and he quickly becomes the prodigy that the elders see as the future. All is going according to “The Plan” until Jeremy stumbles into Callie’s dream. A dream filled with music and hope and beauty. Music is forbidden, it is against “The Plan”, but how can something peaceful and beautiful be a bad thing? Jeremy makes a decision to not bend Callie’s dream, and this starts a ripple of changes, and begins his shift to breaking every rule and searching for what is really is right. Should a small group of people with a plan be able to control the minds and plans for the rest? Is everything he has ever known and been taught really wrong and harmful?

As I began reading Dreambender I made instant connections to Lois Lowry’s The Giver. The two books are different but have similarities that provoke the same questions and concerns in the reader. The book is well written and the tone takes on a relaxed and dream-like feel. Even through the chaos, the author keeps a sense of calm in the reader as they are taken into a world that is completely changed after “The Warming”. Jeremy and Callie’s thoughts and journey will force readers to question what is right and what is fair. Should one person or group’s idea of what is best for the community be forced on others? What if they are doing it with the best of intentions? I recommend Dreambender to those looking to read a solid middle grade fantasy. It also will especially appeal to those who understand the power of music and arts and their impact on the world.

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“DREAMBENDER,” by Ronald Kidd, Albert Whitman & Company, March 1, 2016, Hardcover, $16.99 (ages 8 and up)

When the Warming came, it changed how people lived. The arts became dangerous, a distraction from the needs of many, and so they disappeared.

Callie Crawford is a computer. Not a computer in the sense we know them now, but what they are in the future — someone who works with numbers. Everyone in the City has a job — keeper, catcher, computer. It’s what they’ve been assigned, and most people are happy in their work. Callie knows what she does is important but wonders if there’s something more.

Jeremy Finn is a dreambender. As the title suggests, his job is to adjust, or bend, people’s dreams. When people dream of violence, those thoughts are quietly twisted away. The same goes for thoughts of music and art. People in the City must never become too focused on feelings; that’s how the Warming came in the first place.

You’d think that once a dream was altered, the original would disappear, but not for the dreambenders; they keep hold of those dreams and can relive them whenever they choose. The problem is Jeremy thinks music is beautiful, and when he visits a dream in which Callie is singing, he wants her to be able to relive it, too.

Fascinated with a girl he’s never met, Jeremy defies the rules and sets out to meet Callie. But no one in the City knows about the dreambenders, and meeting Callie sets off a chain of events that will challenge everything people have come to know and count on.

“Dreambender” is dystopian without the violence or hopelessness that often accompanies the genre, making it more suitable for middle readers. Although, author Ronald Kidd’s prose adds a sophistication that YA readers will appreciate. At 256 pages, the book is relatively short and its pacing makes it a fast read overall.

Of the two main characters, Callie is the more refined, but Jeremy is infinitely more interesting. I found his overall story arch to be more thought provoking and his questioning nature more realistic. He’s someone I’d actually want to spend time with in real life.

“Dreambender” is a self-contained novel — something that should happen more often. Because of that treatment, it has a tighter, more polished feel. Every word and action has a visible purpose, making for a more enjoyable reading experience.

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