BookBrowse Reviews Gossamer by Lois Lowry

BookBrowse:

The prose is light as gossamer; the story as haunting as a dream. Ages 10+

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In poetically simple words Lowry draws the reader into her story about Littlest One, a trainee dream-giver, assigned to the house of an elderly woman who agrees to foster an "angry boy".  Lowry shows us that it's possible to take on big issues such as child abuse without having to resort to gritty detail; instead she paints her story, not with a sugar-coating, but with a gossamer touch so that young children can empathize with the central characters, including the boy and his mother, without being overwhelmed by harsh details.  There is much for children and adults to appreciate in this short but surprisingly deep tale, and strong lessons to be learned about the power of the human spirit to start again and find hope in the littlest of things.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in May 2006, and has been updated for the January 2008 edition. Click here to go to this issue.