Review / Dream, Annie, Dream

Book: Dream, Annie, Dream (2022)
Author: Waka T. Brown
Genre: MG, Near-Historical (1987)

Opening lines from the book …
You can be anything you want to be. My sixth-grade teacher’s parting words to the graduating class of Iron Hills Elementary ran in my ears, even over the deafening roar of the rocket motors.

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THIS BOOK…

1) Annie was such a great protagonist! I loved her enthusiasm. And she has a special spot in her heart for the Alice in Wonderland story.

2) I loved her dad especially! And I liked her mom too. (I probably identified more with the mom then the dad.) I loved how her mom had her own little story arc in this book. But it’s her dad’s positivity that was such a good thing to see. (I also liked the little brother, Tak.)

3) The friendships in this book were interesting, to say the least. I loved how loyal Annie is. Really, it came down to how much I liked how Annie handled herself, even when she saw her best friend always getting the roles she wanted.

4) This book is about theatre. I thought it was a nice touch that it was divided into three acts with three musicals/plays!

5) The director Sam is definitely an interesting character! She’s so blunt. But I like how she connects with Annie, especially near the end of the book.

6) The story is also set in 1987, so that was a fun little trip back down memory lane. 🙂

FINAL THOUGHTS

I don’t always like the “you can be whatever you want to be” line, but I thought this book handled it quite well. The truth is, we can’t always be what we want, but that doesn’t mean we should give up and never try. And I thought that was the ultimate take-away for this book!

 

---

YOUR TURN…

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Note: I’m posting this for Greg Pattridge’s Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday…

Advertisement