Dreaming

So something we talk about in writing is the Fictive Dream--you want to create stories that are so real, for a time, your reader is lost in a dream, a vivid, uninterrupted dream.

Here are some books that do that for me (and my kids):

She magically puts people together in such a way that helps you dream. Same author as another post below. She is all about family too, which is rare in a YA. And she is very much about remembering who you are.

This book is not for the squeamish, but man, do my kids love to read this book. And here it aloud. I read it to Calvin just today, and saw by the look on his face, if I didn't do some warning, he was going to try and make a marvelous medicine of his own...

This is a grown-up book, but whenever I read it I am swept away and crying due to laughter the entire time. All I have to say is there's an old lady who constantly shouts, "I saw something nasty in the wood shed." And you never even find out what it is, but you love the old lady all the same.

Picture book spotlight:

This isn't my absolute favorite book to read aloud, but Shaemus and Calvin love it. Shaemus loves it so much, I've had to read it again and again (I won't do this, by the way, if I hate the book. I actually have a rule about that. I won't read any book I despise. Hence why we own nothing that is also a movie or television show (at least was a show first, book second)). But Shaemus was taken by the city with smoke, smoke, smoke, compared with the city that is now a garden. He went right outside and found a trowel, shovel, watering pail, and declared he was going to be a gardener too. It probably would have worked if he'd had some seeds and it weren't winter!