REVIEW: Dream by Barbara O’Connor
The highly anticipated follow up to Wish, which has spent six years on the New York Times bestseller list and is beloved by over two million readers. Dream follows a small town girl with big aspirations who discovers that anything is possible with your best friends and an adorable pup by your side!
The sky is the limit.
Idalee Lovett is content with her life in small-town Colby, North Carolina, living in her family’s huge house with rooms for rent. But she has big dreams, just like her mama. While Mama is on tour for the summer with her cover band, Lovey Lovett and the Junkyard Dogs, Idalee decides to hone her craft as a songwriter—since her truest wish is to hear her country songs on the radio one day.
When the local radio station announces a songwriting contest with the winning song being recorded by an up-and-coming singer, Idalee is determined to win. It would definitely be possible if only she could buy the shiny blue guitar in Asheville’s music shop. Idalee doesn’t have much money, but she knows exactly how to get it—the long-lost treasure her late granddaddy hid somewhere in their house. With the help of her friends Odell, Howard, Charlie, and an adorable little dog named Wishbone, Idalee is going to search in every nook and cranny until she finds it. But little does she know, the biggest treasure of all is only discovered when you believe in yourself with your whole heart.
Dear Ms. O’Connor,
Years ago I fell in love with Charlie, Howard, and Charlie’s dog Wishbone while reading “Wish.” I was delighted to see that this new book would feature them in a return to the small mountain town of Colby, North Carolina along with a wonderful new set of characters.
Idalee Lovett is a “Lovett” – a family with a long history of singing and writing songs. Her mother is a member of a band that is trying to get their big break and now, at the end of summer, that might finally be happening. But that means Idalee will be left at home, along with the various people who rent rooms there, in the big house her mama owns.
When a country music station announces a song-writing contest, Idalee just knows she can win but she needs a better guitar then the one she has. Remembering a story from family lore about hidden treasure in the house, she and her friends and Wishbone make plans to find it. But Idalee is going to learn a lot more this summer than she thought.
I love being back in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina which are still recovering in real life from Hurricane Helene. That is not a part of the book but I couldn’t help but think of my friends who live there while reading this.
Idalee has music in her veins and dreams in her heart but does she have the talent or better yet the gumption to try? The contest is a big part of the story but I think the bigger part is Idalee making new friends and getting the push from them to go for it. Yes, she does have talent, yes she can win – that’s what her friends tell her and better yet show her with their efforts to help her. We believe in you. We have faith in you. We’ll help you reach for your dreams.
But there’s another lesson to be learned and it’s a hard one. Idalee and her friends do Something that, even as they’re doing it, Idalee knows it’s wrong. Then she falters in her belief in herself and does something worse. What she ends up doing after that takes heart and guts and I was proud of her. She doesn’t get off scot free. In fact her internal struggle is far worse than anything anyone else could do to punish her and in the end she, and a few others, learn a valuable lesson that they take to heart and that I think will stick with them.
As in “Dream” these characters aren’t sugary sweet or perfect. They’re eleven and twelve year olds who act that way. I enjoyed getting more of Charlie and Howard and seeing how Charlie is making strides with her anger issues. Howard’s family is as warm and welcoming as ever and the boarders at Idalee’s house are their own found family who cheer Idalee on and support her. Maybe the “Southern” names are just a bit much but this is a delightful hug of a book in which a young girl has character growth and learns to believe in herself and her talent. B+
~Jayne
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