Ashley's Review of Gossamer by Lois Lowry

My Pre-Reading

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When I was a kid, I used to love reading The Giver. I thought the world that Lois Lowry created was so interesting, and I always wondered what it would be like to be in Jonas' shoes. I also always wondered what happened to Jonas after the end of The Giver, and wanted to read more books by Lowry.

I wish I had found this book back then. Although I still found this book to be rich and exciting, I think I definitely would have enjoyed it even more when I was younger.  Lowry's world-building skills never cease to amaze me, even when she's just expanding on the existing world. The idea that there are little creatures out there that bring us our dreams, and evil creatures that bring us nightmares, is actually pretty fascinating. And even though there's a scientific explanation for dreams, little kids would definitely enjoy this explanation more than the scientific one.

I loved the character of Littlest, and I really loved how "gossamer" ties in to the whole story. While you can kind of see where it's going, it's nice to have it finally presented by the end. And I love how even the smallest of creatures can be the one that saves the day. It's a pretty good lesson for the age group this book was intended for.

I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Lois Lowry, and especially to those with small children. I really think every child should be given the opportunity to experience Lowry, and this book would be a great push in that direction - even better than The Giver sequence, I think. Definitely a 5/5 here, and I will most definitely be keeping an eye out for any other Lois Lowry books I haven't read yet.


--Ashley