While Kimmy’s parents look for a house close to Daddy’s job, Kimmy stays with her Chippewa grandmother. The bad dreams she has had still bother her. But with her grandmother’s help, she learns about dreamcatchers.
In the first-person narrative, the child’s voice is quiet and convincing. A picture book that is particularly welcome for portraying a present-day story about Native Americans.
This is a sensitive and attractive story.
The dreamcatcher—or the story—works; Kimmy wakes up happy and refreshed. The love shared by the child and her grandmother is palpable, reflected in the old woman’s reassuring presence, her words, actions, and spirit. Schuett’s acrylic and gouache illustrations show that warmth in expressive faces, and in the curve of Grandmother’s arm and the angle of her head as she holds Kimmy. Directions for making a dreamcatcher round out this satisfying offering.
A Chippewa girl’s bad dreams are kept at bay by a dreamcatcher in this straightforward story. The paintings convincingly convey tenderness among the family members, as well as the narrator’s anxiety.
