Gossamer by Lois Lowry

With Gossamer, Lois Lowry enters the curious world of dreams and introduces us to the beings that deliver our dreams and nightmares. The book has a nice, spooky feel to it as it introduces us to beings who travel about our homes at night collecting memories from different objects and then bestowing them upon the sleeper. The dream gatherer that is the center of this story is a being by the name of "littlest one" who has a "gossamer touch"...a very light touch that allows her to collect fragments of memories that other dream gatherers cannot without disturbing things. Littlest One is being trained on how to bestow dreams in the house of an older lady who lives alone with her dog but is now adopting a young boy named John. But John proves to be a challenge for her. He's in the custody of child protective services and has mixed memories of his past, a past that includes an abusive father but a loving mother who is struggling to get it together so that she can regain custody of him. John is angry at the world for what he's been through and we can tell from the get go that he and his new care giver do not have much in common. But the older lady makes him feel as loved as she can. The dream givers have a challenge ahead of them. Their job is to bestow pleasant dreams upon people, but their are other beings called Sinisteeds who were once kind dream givers but have fallen from grace who are waging a war against them to bestow nightmares upon sleepers. John needs pleasant dreams, but the Sinisteeds have sought him out as their next victim and Littlest One may be the only one to save him. This was a short book at only 140 pages, but there was so much beauty packed into it. It was truly a page turner as well. The more and more I read of Lowry's, the more of a fan I become. She's such an excellent writer and has such a great skill at tackling the emotions of the human soul. I had been wanting to read this one for over a year now and I'm so glad that I finally have. Now on to find some more Lowry!