Neftali finds beauty and wonder everywhere: in the oily colors of mud puddles; a lost glove, sailing on the wind; the music of birds and language. ...
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Aug 31, 2011
Q-Laura
rated it: 
If I had met Pablo Neruda I'll have fallen in love with him. He had a sensibility to his world like no one else. He could see the difference of colors in the grass. I love the fact that he collects little souvenirs from nature.
The story is full of poetry, images and feelings. The illustrations are unique and dream like.
I read the book in Spanish.
I have seen a movie about Neruda's life. In the movie someone asks him to write a letter for his love just like the story in the book.
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The story is full of poetry, images and feelings. The illustrations are unique and dream like.
I read the book in Spanish.
I have seen a movie about Neruda's life. In the movie someone asks him to write a letter for his love just like the story in the book.
More...
4 comments
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Feb 11, 2012
Jessica
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Review via the Deseret News
Neftali is a dreamer. He has been for as long as he can remember. Where some see an old boot or a pile of sticks, he sees a story and new places. His imagination is always working, and it drives his father nuts.
While Neftali finds beauty in the wonder of words and books, his father is looking for the practical. He wants Neftali to become a doctor. But to accomplish that, Neftalí must become robust — something he definitely is not.
Neftali is cri More...
Neftali is a dreamer. He has been for as long as he can remember. Where some see an old boot or a pile of sticks, he sees a story and new places. His imagination is always working, and it drives his father nuts.
While Neftali finds beauty in the wonder of words and books, his father is looking for the practical. He wants Neftali to become a doctor. But to accomplish that, Neftalí must become robust — something he definitely is not.
Neftali is cri More...
Nov 19, 2011
Neftali finds beauty and wonder everywhere: in the oily colors of mud puddles; a lost glove, sailing on the wind; the music of birds and language. He loves to collect treasures, daydream, and write--pastimes his authoritarian father thinks are for fools. Against all odds, Neftali prevails against his father's cruelty and his own crippling shyness to become one of the most ...moreNeftali finds beauty and wonder everywhere: in the oily colors of mud puddles; a lost glove, sailing on the wind; the
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Oct 02, 2011
528_Kristin
rated it: 
Opinion: This was book was just ok in my opinion. It was a bit hard to follow at times, and the time line goes to fast for me. It jumps so often, and I felt many story lines were left unanswered. You never learn if he finds friends, why he is sick, does he ever connect with his father, etc.? I felt for the characters, but I never felt like I connected with them.
Grades: 4+
Summary: The Dreamer is a fiction work based on the life of poet Pablo Neruda's. His story is told in ve More...
Grades: 4+
Summary: The Dreamer is a fiction work based on the life of poet Pablo Neruda's. His story is told in ve More...
Aug 25, 2011
Pamela
rated it:
Some would give up their dreams if they had a father like Netfali has in The Dreamer (Scholastic Press 2010) by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Peter Sís. Netfali keeps his dream alive in his mind and writes it all down on paper and finds beauty in his little treasures. Muñoz Ryan used Pablo Neruda’s style of poetry and writing to help tell his story and the illustrations make the words come to life on the page. The author uses a historical figure to tell a fictional story. The story is b
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Jul 13, 2011
Louisa
rated it: 
I went into "The Dreamer" conflicted. I love Peter Sis' illustrations always. And I generally love Pam Munoz Ryan's plucky but realistic girl heroines.
However, this is where it gets hard and potentially embarrassing--I do not like Pablo Neruda's poetry. Maybe, it's just that as a poet-girl growing up in a world where most people don't really know much about poetry (except that it should always rhyme and if it doesn't, it should at least be about trees or feelings or so More...
However, this is where it gets hard and potentially embarrassing--I do not like Pablo Neruda's poetry. Maybe, it's just that as a poet-girl growing up in a world where most people don't really know much about poetry (except that it should always rhyme and if it doesn't, it should at least be about trees or feelings or so More...
Jul 10, 2011
Tiphanie
rated it:
List time!
Reasons why I liked this book:
1. It was mostly narrative with sides of poetry and illustration. Both only strengthened the story.
2. The writing was clear, lovely, and perfect in the way it flowed from reality to Neftali's dreamworld and back again without stopping to say, "Hey guys, this part is not real." Because it was real, in a sense, and the author knows that.
Reasons why I didn't like this book:
1. The format of the book. It's alm More...
Reasons why I liked this book:
1. It was mostly narrative with sides of poetry and illustration. Both only strengthened the story.
2. The writing was clear, lovely, and perfect in the way it flowed from reality to Neftali's dreamworld and back again without stopping to say, "Hey guys, this part is not real." Because it was real, in a sense, and the author knows that.
Reasons why I didn't like this book:
1. The format of the book. It's alm More...
Apr 02, 2011
Brenda
rated it:
Here is a story about a kid who is different. And he lives in a different country - Chile. It's very interesting to read about his life. Some things are different about the way he lives - but most things are the same as any other kids' life - family issues, finding friends, and figuring out what you want to be when you grow up. Neftali is the boy growing up in a family where what the father says is LAW. His older brother loves to sing and is good at it, but the father thinks it is not going to m
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Jan 16, 2011
Judy
rated it:
I have a confession to make. I do not read poetry. I know that sounds odd for someone who has written song lyrics for many years, but there you have it. Somewhere along the way, I got addicted to STORY and I get that from novels more than from poems. If the Adult Reading Group at Once Upon A Time Bookstore (Montrose, CA, where I used to work and where I still shop) had not chosen The Dreamer for its December read, I would probably not have read it. A fictional retelling of events in t More...
Jan 07, 2011
Carol
rated it:
Author Pam Munoz Ryan, illustrator Peter Sis and their book designers have created a true work of art in the biographical novel The Dreamer. A fictionalized account of the childhood of Neftali Reyes (who later adopted the pen name Pablo Neruda), the book is both a physical and emotional jewel. Its iridescent blue/green/silver cover brings to mind the startling beetle that Neftali excitedly discovers on his first visit out into the jungle with his father, and the unusual text color echos the
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Dec 12, 2010
Teresa
rated it:
I found this completely engrossing. I could not stop reading about Neftali and his controlling, dismissive father, his childhood in the mountains of Chile, and the rest of his family: brother Rodolfo, who gives up singing to please their father, his little sister Laurita, and his loving stepmother, who tries to help him, quietly. Ryan describes Neftali noticing the people and natural things around him, collecting treasures: pinecones, rocks, feathers and words, on slips of paper -- trying to ple
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Nov 22, 2010
Nicola
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Reason for Reading: I wouldn't have read this if I hadn't received a review copy but Ryan is the author of one of my son's favourite books that he has had read to him multiple times, Riding Freedom, and I love Peter Sis' artwork. Besides, I always enjoy a good biography, even children's fictional biographies. The poetry angle did worry me though as I am not a fan of poetry in general (except for the silly, rhyming kind ala Shel Silverstien and specific epic poems).
This tells the story More...
This tells the story More...
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Nov 18, 2010
Sharon
rated it:
A fictionalized biography about the poet Pablo Neruda, there's no doubt this book, with its dreamy art by Peter Sis, and its scraps of poetry and celebrations of nature and daily life, is beautifully done. However, the well-worn message about the creative spirit overcoming familial and societal pressure to become something else threatened to become sappy, overbearing, and cliched at many points, and I feel it sometimes did. I almost wanted the father's quashing of Pablo's spirit to become more b
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Aug 07, 2010
Lars
rated it:
This precious jewel of a book is marred only by not ending where it should have. Ryan and Peter Sis, who get equal billing on the jacket, have created an exquisite piece of art. Prose, poetry and picture are skillfully interwoven and seamlessly merged in the story of a sickly, dreamy boy who lives in Temuco, Chile.
It's the perfect spot for a dreamer like Neftali, equidistant from the Pacific and the Andes, the roar of the sea and the rumbling of a volcano. It's the gateway to th More...
It's the perfect spot for a dreamer like Neftali, equidistant from the Pacific and the Andes, the roar of the sea and the rumbling of a volcano. It's the gateway to th More...
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Jul 27, 2010
Nancy
rated it:
Neftali is a young man who loves words and can find magic in ordinary places. He lives a life of tyranny under his cruel father who wishes to mold Neftali into his own ideas of success and masculinity. The Dreamer follows Neftali as he grows from a scared young boy to a passionate young man, and hints at the great poet he will one day become. This unique book combines illustrations by Peter Sis with text by author Pam Munoz Ryan. The illustrations are simple and at times even abstract. Next to m
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Jul 08, 2010
Laura
rated it:
I have just discovered a talented author—Pam Munoz Ryan. Her simple yet powerful way of conveying the story about Neftalí, a young uncommon boy who sees the world in a unique and magical way, touched me deeply. Based on the biography of Pablo Neruda, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, this book is inspiring. I thoroughly enjoyed Ryan’s beautiful poetic writing that stirred my imagination to the point where I was soaring with Neftalí in the blue sky, running with him in the lush Chile
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May 17, 2010
Jeannie
rated it:
The message to follow your dreams is wonderful, making poets "cool", especially those from other countries is a great idea, and Pam Munoz Ryan's questions combined with Peter Sis' drawings are fantastic such as "Which is sharper? The hatchet that cuts down the dream? Or the scythe that clears a path for another?"
My lack of enthusiasm for the book is directly related to my having lived in Chile for six years and being married to a Chilean. Chile is an interesting l More...
My lack of enthusiasm for the book is directly related to my having lived in Chile for six years and being married to a Chilean. Chile is an interesting l More...
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Apr 23, 2010
Eva
rated it:
Neftalí's father is rigid and stern, his stepmother is kind but ineffectual, and his sister and brother are as fearful of their father as Neftalí is. Neftalí is shaped by his family, by his rainy Chilean home, by the lush forests in his land, by the people he meets and the objects all around him. Even everyday objects seem just as real and as full of meaning and worth as anything and anyone else - and this is something children (and apparently middle-aged librarians) can definitely understand. W
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Jan 23, 2012
L12_matt
rated it:
The Dreamer, by Pam Munoz Ryan is a coming of age story about a Chilean boy named Neftali. Neftali finds joy and wonder in nearly everything around him. The story opens with Neftali in his room daydreaming in a fantasyland of sorts and healing from an illness when his father returns home from work on the railroad. Neftali’s father is an imposing, prominent figure in this story. He is a man who suffers no fools and constantly pushes his children to become doctors or lawyers or some other loft
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Dec 03, 2011
Bethany
rated it:
Neftali Reyes is a dreamer. He's small and skinny, absentminded, a collector of twigs and rocks and discarded shoes. The window to his room might suddenly fill up with waves, the ceiling might drop away so that he can fly up, into the stars. And he's a writer. A writer of individual words, at first, which he might scrawl in the sand or on a fence post, and then of poems, which he might publish in a newspaper to encourage others to rise up against a government's injustice. His father will no
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Jan 24, 2011
Erica
rated it:
Booktalk: Neftali looks up to his father and is eager to please him, but everything that he does just seems to disappoint him. Neftali's father disapproves of the little treasures that he stops to pick up wherever he goes: a pinecone, an old boot, a shell. His father disapproves of his slender physique, even though Neftali can't do anything about it. He is embarrassed by Neftali's stutter when his friends come to visit. But the most common reprimand Neftali hears from his father is "St
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Oct 29, 2010
Lilith
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Mar 08, 2011
Victoria
rated it:
Neftali is a bright, introspective boy with an amazing imagination. He sees infinite beauty and possibility in everyday objects and events. We first meet Neftali as a young boy, skinny, unhealthy and scorned by his father. His stepmother, Mamadre, cares for him deeply, but because of the time and culture--and likely her own aversion to punishment--she stands back and just watches as his father emotionally abuses the boy and puts him in dangerous situations. Fortunately, father is gone for we
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Jan 13, 2011
Jessica
rated it:
The Dreamer is a beautiful and thoughtful book. Despite its length (some 370-odd pages), I thought it would be a quick read (because the type is quite large and spaced out--only about 14 lines per page), but it actually took me 4 or so days to read. This is because each phrase, each paragraph, is a living jewel, a piece of art to roll around in your brain and ponder. It's not the kind of book where plot is the main focus and you can read it quickly. A work of magical realism, The Dreamer is
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Mar 18, 2011
Josiah
rated it:
"In the largest of worlds, what adventures await the smallest of ships?"
—The Dreamer, P. 150
First off, an admission: like Neftalí in this book, I am a dreamer. I know what it's like to look at the same world in which everyone else lives and see it in an almost entirely different way from them; to sense the sweet breath of hope and nobility in the least ostentatious places, and find the gentle comfort of a nurturing touch where no one else would even think More...
—The Dreamer, P. 150
First off, an admission: like Neftalí in this book, I am a dreamer. I know what it's like to look at the same world in which everyone else lives and see it in an almost entirely different way from them; to sense the sweet breath of hope and nobility in the least ostentatious places, and find the gentle comfort of a nurturing touch where no one else would even think More...
Dec 02, 2010
Rita
rated it: 
For me, this book was the literary equivalent of putting a dog in a Halloween costume: I see what you’re trying to do there, it’s kind of cute, but overall, it does nothing for me (and frankly, I just feel embarrassed for the dog). Maybe I have a heart of stone. But this fictionalized account of Pablo Neruda’s childhood did not penetrate it.
I found the dialogue stilted, the characters one-dimensional, and the narrative annoyingly jumpy. Also frustrating was the seemingly arbitrary o More...
I found the dialogue stilted, the characters one-dimensional, and the narrative annoyingly jumpy. Also frustrating was the seemingly arbitrary o More...
5 comments
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Nov 22, 2010
Sarah
rated it:
In a small village in Chile, Neftali Reyes is a shy boy whose mind is always wandering; he finds beauty in the simplest things in nature and is fascinated by words. His father, however, wants him to be more focused and hard working so that he might become a doctor or a dentist.
The reader follows Neftali as he grows up; we learn that, as an adolescent, he still has trouble focusing in school and that he still has a love of words. In fact, he has filled dozens of notebooks with his More...
The reader follows Neftali as he grows up; we learn that, as an adolescent, he still has trouble focusing in school and that he still has a love of words. In fact, he has filled dozens of notebooks with his More...
Jun 16, 2010
Josephine
rated it:
I'm getting ready to teach my summer poetry workshop and to get in the zone, I picked up Pam Munoz Ryan's, The Dreamer, a middle grade novel based on the childhood of poet Pablo Neruda.
I don't know what I was expecting, but this book is so delicately and beautifully woven together, it took my breath away in parts. It chronicles Neftali's (Pablo Neruda's given name) coming of age. Specifically, his conflict with his father, who wants him to stop dreaming and make something of himself. More...
I don't know what I was expecting, but this book is so delicately and beautifully woven together, it took my breath away in parts. It chronicles Neftali's (Pablo Neruda's given name) coming of age. Specifically, his conflict with his father, who wants him to stop dreaming and make something of himself. More...
Nov 10, 2010
Melissa
rated it:
I really liked this much- lauded book for the first 50 pages. The dreamy child protagonist Neftali, lives in rural Chili. He is misunderstood and there is magical realism. SO far so good. What derailed my enjoyment were the stereo-types and the didacticism. Neftali's father is bad. The merchants are bad. The step-mother is down trodden, but good. The liberal Uncle is good. All the native Mapuche indians are good. All nature is good. All hunters are bad. With a sense of dread I realized this was
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Mar 20, 2011
Danielle
rated it:
The dreamer was a realistic story. Neftali is the son of a hardworking railroad man, and a middle sibling (Laurita younger and Rodolfo older). The dreamer is a book that is very easy to relate with. Why? because Neftali wants to be a writer, but his father wants him to do somthing more productive, like being a doctor or a lawyer; somthing that can support the family. For a long time i wanted to be a preformer, but my parents frowned apponed it because it doesnt make enough money; but it was som
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