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Dandelion Wine

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 20,256 ratings · 1,608 reviews

The summer of '28 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma's belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding—remembered forever...more

Paperback, Grand Master Edition, 253 pages

Published March 1st 1985 by Bantam (first published 1957)

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Jul 02, 2007 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: One and all.

The only reason I gave this book five stars was because I couldn't give it five thousand.

I can't express how beautiful this book is. I've never cried so hard (no, not even when Mrs. Johnson read us "Where the Red Fern Grows" in the third grade), nor have I felt so much love from a bunch of grouped together, sixty-year-old, courier-fonted words. I've never been more scared than I was by the possibility of the Lonely One being just around the corner, hiding in the shadows. I've never thought so mu...more

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Oct 16, 2007 Russell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recently while moving bookcases, books and furniture around, I came across my copy of Dandelion Wine .

I had read it once, years ago, during my own personal Golden Age of Science Fiction, ages 8 to 16. Now was a good time as any to revisit this novel. Bradbury had been marked, incorrectly, in my mind as a sci-fi writer on the same level as Heinlein or Asimov.

He's not a hard core, I, Robot type of sci-fi writer, really. More like a fantasy writer who touched on sci-fi themes.

And, he's in his own...more

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Aug 26, 2007 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: the young at heart

Sure, it's overly sentimental and largely ignores the social problems of the time depicted, but when you're 12 years old in small-town America, there are no social problems. There are only problems regarding the new pair of tennis shoes you want, the creepy guy who hangs out in the ravine, the desire to live forever, to be young forever, to build the perfect happiness machine. Besides, Bradbury's writing is so rich it practically drips, much like biting into a perfectly ripe peach in August.

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Mar 30, 2012 Cheryl in CC NV rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read several times as a child. I don't think I'd like it so much now, though. I'll re-read Martian Chronicles and then see how many of Bradbury's classics I want to re-visit.

ETA - I did reread The Martian Chronicles and did not much like it. It had some interesting ideas and some lovely language, but it was sexist and had bad astronomy and very questionable sociology. So... since this doesn't stand as a SF book, but as literature, it's probably something I'd still rate highly. However... I still...more

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Apr 01, 2008 Amber rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Um....ok so I totally hated this book. I hope someone out there can tell me why this is a good book. It's unique, sure, but it's just a mess of words. In reading the introduction, I felt like I got a sense of why that is. The author said he forced himself to word-dump every single morning - just writing as creatively etc as he could. Well, I think he just put those "creative" word-dumps together and called it a story. It has no story line, no voice, no character development, no point. The author...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Rich Rosell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I read of Bradbury's death in June my first thought was that I have to read Dandelion Wine again. This has always been my favorite book of his, and revisiting it again has reminded me why I hold this in such high regard. Bradbury captures the endless scope of summer and all of its mysteries as seen through the eyes (mostly) of a 12-year-old boy in fictional Green Town, IL.

There's a lot going on here - life, death, childhood, murder, aging, magic, adulthood, memories - and Bradbury fills ea...more

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Jun 24, 2008 Stewart rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed reading this book when I was in my early 20s, but only re-reading it in my 50s have I realized what a wonderful novel "Dandelion Wine" is, what an amazing evocation of summer in a small town. The summer evoked is 1928, but it could almost as easily be 1948 or 1968 as well. The book paints a picture of a time when one walked or took a trolley around town, talked with friends and family on a large front porch, had a soda or ice cream at a drugstore fountain, and listened to grandfathers...more

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Jul 09, 2008 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you get caught up in Ray Bradbury's usual eerie subject matter, it's easy to forget that he's a master prose stylist and one of the greatest writers of our time. For my money, Dandelion Wine is by far his most beautiful work. It's hard to peg: I guess you could call it a coming-of-age story, but that's much too simplistic for this timeless, complex, and layered book - it transcends the genre. The series of kaleidoscopic, ever-shifting vignettes of one summer in a small Midwestern town - told...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Joe Toledo added it · review of another edition

El vino del estío es una obra de ciencia ficción disfrazada de autobiografía. Es también un relato de realismo mágico disfrazada de fantasía, una de las mejores novelas sobre el pasado y el mito del verano eterno
Bradbury consigue trasladarnos a ese tiempo sobre la infancia, el verano, el tiempo que se va y los descubrimientos que llegan antes de la adolescencia, antes del amor, antes de todo. Pocos autores han mirado la niñez con el cariño que lo hace Bradbury
En tres meses de 1928, Douglas obse...more El vino del estío es una obra de ciencia ficción disfrazada de autobiografía. Es también un relato de realismo mágico disfrazada de fantasía, una de las mejores novelas sobre el pasado y el mito del verano eterno
Bradbury consigue trasladarnos a ese tiempo sobre la infancia, el verano, el tiempo que se va y los descubrimientos que llegan antes de la adolescencia, antes del amor, antes de todo. Pocos autores han mirado la niñez con el cariño que lo hace Bradbury
En tres meses de 1928, Douglas observa, escucha y saborea las sorpresas rituales de un verano especial: el descubrimiento de la vida y la muerte, el último tranvía, la limpieza de las alfombras, la aparición de las hamacas en los porches, la cosecha del vino

Bradbury parece debatirse entre la realidad y la fantasía, así que cuando ésta irrumpe lo hace a través de pequeñas rendijas, como las invenciones insólitas que rodean a un niño de doce años: una máquina de la felicidad, una que pasea a por el mundo y hasta una para viajar en el tiempo.

Nos habla de lo cotidiano como si fuera lo fantástico, de los jardines con césped recién cortado como si fueran las arenas de Marte. Para él, como para el niño protagonista, todo tiene el mismo misterio. Y la realidad sólo se sostiene gracias a los pequeños ritos, a los usos y costumbres. Sólo porque los personajes elaboran el primer vino del estío, por el aroma de los jardines, por las tardes de juegos que acaban bajo las estrellas; sólo por eso, digo, El vino del estío es una novela sobre el mundo real, luego, en otros pasajes la gente que la puebla podría ser de mundos que nunca existieron: los inventores no tan locos, los asesinos que siguen aterrorizando a los niños incluso después de muertos, las luciérnagas que iluminan.

máquinas extraordinarias y mágicos misterios: la de la Felicidad, que casi destruye la de su inventor: la Máquina Verde, que pasea a dos viejas señoras por las calles del pueblo; la Máquina del Tiempo en el cuerpo de un viejo coronel; la terrible y fabulosa Madame Tarot...
lo fantástico y lo cotidiano se dan la mano en esta deliciosa crónica de un verano visto a través de los ojos de un chico de doce años. (less)

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May 05, 2008 Doug rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amazing storytelling. What a gift for weaving such vivid images and emotions from mere words! The description of the pantry and of the Grandmother's cooking is an explosion of sensations. Also memorable is the Grandfather's feelings about the lawnmower. And the Grandmother's death is another stand-out part of this story. Who cares if the story is interesting (to me it was ok but not great), the writing is what makes this book a great read.

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Sep 21, 2007 Weinz rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Illustrates life in a way that leaves you rethinking your relationships to your past. This book has an air of nostalgia that carries throughout the book. It takes you back to a place where summers meant running through the grass barefoot and where five somersaults, six push-ups and climbing a tree made everything all better. I loved the relationships between the neighbors. Beautiful, poetic and magical.

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Jul 06, 2011 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

So I've assigned this book for summer reading for my honors sophomores, so I guess it's time I read it :). I've read many "bits" over the years and have appreciated it. The timing of this book is perfect--I love his depiction of summer and it's smells and traditions. I am positive my 15 year-old students will not appreciate its lyrical language, but I'm loving it.

Here are some of those "bits" I love.

"It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered...more So I've assigned this book for summer reading for my honors sophomores, so I guess it's time I read it :). I've read many "bits" over the years and have appreciated it. The timing of this book is perfect--I love his depiction of summer and it's smells and traditions. I am positive my 15 year-old students will not appreciate its lyrical language, but I'm loving it.

Here are some of those "bits" I love.

"It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer" (1).

"If you had your way you'd pass a law to abolish all the little jobs, the little things. But then you'd leave yourself nothing to do between the big jobs and you'd have a devil of a time thinking up things to do so you wouldn't go crazy. Instead of that, why not let nature show you a few things? Cutting grass and pulling weeds can be a way of life, son" (50).

"Gardening is the handiest excuse for being a philosopher. Nobody guesses, nobody accuses, nobody knows, but there you are, Plato in the peonies, Socrates force-growing his own hemlock. A man toting a sack of blood manure across his lawn is kin to Atlas letting the world spin easy on his shoulder" (51).

"It won't work," Mr. Bentley continued, sipping his tea. "No matter how hard you try to be what you once were, you can only be what you are here and now. Time hypnotizes. When you're nine, you think you've always been nine years old and will always be. When you're thirty, it seems you've always been balanced there on that bright rim of middle life. And then when you turn seventy, you are always and forever seventy. You're in the present, you're trapped in a young now or an old now, but there is no other now to be seen" (75).

I really think I enjoyed the the first half of the book more than the latter. Of course I read it with my students in mind--so I was seeing their annoyance/cynicism at all the "gee golly" parts. There are some parts that may seem cheesy to today's youth, but may parts still hold up. Lavinia Nebbs is awesome!(less)

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Mar 07, 2012 Theia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: heart-warming, fiction, english-american, in-ru

Per total - o carte foarte bine scrisă, consistentă și sinceră.
Cîteva capitole excelente și cîteva oarecum plictisitoare, toate însă împletite cu viziunea, trăirile și percepțiile personajului principal (un băiat de 12 ani). Lumea și oamenii sînt descoperiți treptat de către acesta, le vede tragediile și bucuriile, începe să înțeleagă angoasa, trece prin schimbări majore odată cu noi conjuncturi.

Poți ajunge să crezi că e o carte scrisă prost, cu grad mare de redundanță, dar mi-am dat seama că e...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics

Youth and summertime is perfectly encapsulated in Dandelion Wine. Once again, Bradbury is a master of lyricism in the written word. Douglas's enraptured pleas for the new shoes that he knows will help him run faster and fly higher, Grandpa's ode to the simple pleasures of cutting grass, the cautionary tale of the Happiness Machine that provides anything but, reading and writing by the light of fireflies... Bradbury weaves strands of reality and fantasy together so seamlessly you could almost bel...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Rumi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I think Ray Bradbury is more of a magician than a writer. And this fact becomes clear pretty early on in "Dandelion Wine". I remember reading the first 10 pages or so and thinking I would love that book. Knowing that, I packed it in my luggage and headed off to Varna, my very favourite seaside destination.

Three weeks on an Informatics/IT Summer School there were the highlight of my last three summers. "Dandelion Wine" was simply the perfect book to take with me on a small trip to remind myself...more I think Ray Bradbury is more of a magician than a writer. And this fact becomes clear pretty early on in "Dandelion Wine". I remember reading the first 10 pages or so and thinking I would love that book. Knowing that, I packed it in my luggage and headed off to Varna, my very favourite seaside destination.

Three weeks on an Informatics/IT Summer School there were the highlight of my last three summers. "Dandelion Wine" was simply the perfect book to take with me on a small trip to remind myself of those good times and the way I felt back then. Reading it alone on the beach, the sun shining from one side and the wind blowing from the other, everything truly felt like freedom. These camps have symbolized too many things for me over the years - laziness and motivation; original ideas and ones stolen from a friend; the joy of each detail in life; the wonder of unexpected energy boosts and raptures over new knowledge or newly discovered, seemingly unlimited, opportunities; hours of neglected sleep, spent rather laughing together with great intelligent people; love and hatred, life and death...

And as Douglas Spaulding kindly noted for me, Green Town is also full of things. Just like my dearest holidays, this book brought together so many aspects of live and weaved them together in a truly magical way. The characters, the stories, and mainly, the atmosphere, are so engulfing. "Dandelion Wine" makes you feel so good about yourself and the world around you, and I just love books like that!

Its messages are wonderful, various and perfectly described. "Dandelion Wine" reminded me that I should be happy about the little things, but not only those familiar pleasant ones, but also the slightly more tedious small jobs whose absence is obviously driving our modern society insane. I learned how important a lawnmower could be. I heard the cutest ode to sneakers ringing through my years. And I also found out that the world is an ingeniously composed happiness machine.

What's left for me to say? "Dandelion Wine" got me hooked for life. It's just my type of book, but I'm quite certain anyone can find something in it - either feel once more like the center of their own universe, just like they did as a child, or maybe get inspired by the Spaulding kids and write down some discoveries about the world.(less)

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Sep 04, 2008 Sonia Reppe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: summer-reading, midwest

3.5. The writing is very poetic and from a different, formal era. Centered around brothers Doug and Tom, 12 and 10 yrs old, in the summer of 1928. They go through the same summer rituals as always: first time running barefoot in the grass of the year, first swim in the lake of the year, first dandelion harvest of the year for Grandfathers dandelion wine—but they have new realizations about these things, and they record it all in their nickel tablet. (I guess that's like an old-fashioned journal)...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Alice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, audio, classic, horror, library, literary, science-fiction

I listened to this as a radio play, performed by Colonial Radio Theatre. The work was adapted by Ray Bradbury for the radio program, and so I'm confident in reviewing this as a decent adaptation.

The medium made it a little hard to follow, at times, as some voices were quieter than others, and sometimes characters spoke over one another. There's more exposition through dialogue (or monologues) than one would find in a written work.

But, once I adjusted to the medium, I found it to be an enjoyable...more I listened to this as a radio play, performed by Colonial Radio Theatre. The work was adapted by Ray Bradbury for the radio program, and so I'm confident in reviewing this as a decent adaptation.

The medium made it a little hard to follow, at times, as some voices were quieter than others, and sometimes characters spoke over one another. There's more exposition through dialogue (or monologues) than one would find in a written work.

But, once I adjusted to the medium, I found it to be an enjoyable and touching story. It follows the summer of 1928 through the eyes of young Douglas Spaulding. He declares it, "the best summer ever, the summer that will never end." But menace lurks in this idyllic summer, first in the person of the "lonely man," who resides in the valley in town. Then there's the Tarot Witch, an automated fortune teller who foretells death. And then you have the campfire stories told by Douglas's aunts, which are quite effectively creepy.

I haven't read much Ray Bradbury, but, from what I've read, he's most in his element when he's scaring his reader half to death with quiet, creeping menace, and when he's depicting the loss of innocence using improbable elements. In this case, it's a time machine which allows a man to travel back to his childhood, when he stopped letting people into his heart due to a series of tragic events. The story is bittersweet, but ends on a hopeful note.

There are so many noteworthy images: the bottles of wine representing each day of a neverending summer, the happiness machine populated with all of the things that make life wonderful, the Spaulding boys tallying up all of the wonders of a perfect summer, Douglas's personally overseeing the start of each summer day. But, just as the wonder of the summer of 1928 can't be captured in its numbers, neither can the wonder of this book be captured by enumerating all of the things that are good about it. What's good about it is that it captures both a slice of life and an entire life's philosophy, without ever feeling preachy or over-the-top. It was a lovely story, a lovely message, and I think most readers would appreciate the brief trip to Green Town, Illinois in 1928.(less)

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Jan 19, 2010 Charlotte rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who wants to savor the taste of summer!

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury is a wonderful, easy read about the summer of 1928 in Greentown, IL – a fictional small town loosely based upon Ray Bradbury’s own hometown and childhood experiences.

Dandelion Wine is a collection of fascinating and uplifting short stories with timeless appeal to both adults and children. Each chapter stands alone brilliantly while simultaneously weaving together the intimate secrets of the Midwestern town with great care. Twelve year old Douglas Spaulding and his...more

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Sep 01, 2009 Greg of A2 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-before-1990, fiction-fantasy, favorites

This was one of my first Bradbury reads (great place to start eh?). I'm a romantic at heart so this work was designed with my heart in mind. It soars with beautiful prose and it speaks to any young child out there but particularly young boys growing up in the midwest of the U.S. like myself. Classic sci-fi/fantasy.

I've now read this book a second time and it reveals even more layers as I age. It's a book that was written by a young Bradbury who was wise beyond his years. So many wonderful storie...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Dos novelas en un mismo libro, la segunda una extensión de la primera, ambas escritas hace tiempo pero la segunda publicada más recientemente tras darle los retoques necesarios.

Con el amplio uso de metáforas se nos presenta un fragmento de la autobiografía de R. B., embelleciendo los momentos más felices de su infancia, es decir, la alegría del verano y la llegada del otoño, de la entrada a la adolescencia.

Es una historia que debe leerse en el invierno.

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Jul 19, 2007 Cendri rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just reviewed Something Wicked This Way Comes, and felt like I should add this, too. First read it in English class as a junior in high school, taught by Mrs. Simmons, a wonderful English teacher who adored it. I share her opinion. Some might say this book is short on plot, and they'd be right. There isn't really any to speak of - the book is mostly a collection of short summer-archetypal vignettes. But the moments Bradbury describes manage to capture that innocent, sparkly, nostalgic quality be...more

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Jul 16, 2007 ba rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a kid, I read science fiction voraciously, and I always tried to like Bradbury. I never could. His books didn't read like sci-fi to me. This particular book has everything I don't like about Bradbury's "style" such as predictability, an almost Norman Rockwellesque dose of sacherine-sweet Americana and such a high level of repetition that one wonders whether he hates his readers, or merely considers them to be morons. All this, and no robots or far away planets yields his penultimate pile of d...more

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Sep 14, 2007 Melody rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Transcendent. Luminous. Heartbreakingly nostalgic. A re-read, of course, spurred on by the discovery of a brand new sequel. I've always loved this book, but never so much as now when my own boy is 12. This warm and loving novel-cum-memoir is nothing at all like Bradbury's other books. It's a love letter to that moment when one is hanging suspended in the dream space between childhood and manhood. It's the magic of new tennis shoes and the realization that you too must die. Bradbury inhabits Doug...more

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Jan 30, 2008 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Rachel by: Janet Nilson

Favorite book of all time. I have read it once a year for at least a decade now. It combines the best of two worlds: short stories and novels, as it is a hybrid of the two. Ray Bradbury's language is beautifully vivid and descriptive. I love the chapter about the grandmother, the chapter about the great-grandmother, the chapter about the smell of grass... It combines themes of summertime, childhood, and traditions. Many call it a "coming of age" novel but it is more than that. Even if you don't...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

One of my all-time favorite books. Bradbury weaves delicious words that sit you right down in Green Town, IL to run through the fields and gather dandelions with Doug and Tom Spaulding.

There are many memorable characters, but the one that strikes me the most is Mrs. Bentley from Chapters 15-16 (Season of Disbelief) - I always want to cry or scream after reading those chapters.

Dandelion Wine is one of the few books I grab to read over and over again. It's funny, tender, scary, magical, - everyth...more

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Oct 05, 2010 Mobill76 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

If you appreciate poetry. If you were ever a 10-year-old boy in the midwest. This is the best book ever written in the English language.[return][return][return]As long ago as I can remember having a favorite book, it's been Dandelion Wine. Martian Chronicles was good sci-fi and Farenheit 451 was a very important book in my life. But Dandelion Wine walks many paths. It's first appeal to me was through the youth of it's hero - the Dennis-the-Menace-like Douglas Spaulding and his well-described chi...more

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Jan 29, 2009 Jamie Simo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like my favorite author Peter Beagle, Ray Bradbury is a modern day wizard. The way he weaves words, every sentence is an incantation, perfectly spoken, conjuring up some wonderful new way of seeing something old and familiar. I think most people, if they've heard of Bradbury at all, are familiar with his science fiction work: Farenheit 451 probably the most followed by his short stories, particularly Kaleidoscope and A Sound of Thunder. While I do like his science fiction work, my favorite stori...more Like my favorite author Peter Beagle, Ray Bradbury is a modern day wizard. The way he weaves words, every sentence is an incantation, perfectly spoken, conjuring up some wonderful new way of seeing something old and familiar. I think most people, if they've heard of Bradbury at all, are familiar with his science fiction work: Farenheit 451 probably the most followed by his short stories, particularly Kaleidoscope and A Sound of Thunder. While I do like his science fiction work, my favorite stories of his are his more fantastical childhood tales: Something Wicked this Way Comes, The Halloween Tree (the animated version was even better than the short story), and now, newly discovered by me: Dandelion Wine.

As far as I can tell, Dandelion Wine doesn't have much of a plot. Each "chapter" is a vignette set in a small town in the late 1920's. The protagonist is usually Douglas Spaulding or his younger brother Tom, but other times it's the man who lives down the street trying to build his Happiness Machine or the old lady trying to convince the disbelieving children that she was once a little girl like them. The book is really more about theme: loss and memory and growing up and growing old and most of all the importance of being aware of being alive. This is my favorite passage in the book:

The world, like a great iris of an even more gigantic eye, which has also just opened and stretched out to encompass everything, stared back at him.

And he knew what it was that had leaped upon him to stay and would not run away now.

I’m alive, he thought. . . .

The grass whispered under his body. He put his arm down, feeling the sheath of fuzz on it, and far away below, his toes creaking in his shoes. The wind sighed over his shelled ears. The world slipped bright over the glassy round of his eyeballs like images sparked in a crystal sphere. Flowers were suns and starry spots of sky strewn through the woodland. Birds flickered like skipped stones across the vast inverted pond of heaven. His breath raked over his teeth, going in ice, coming out fire. Insects shocked the air with electric clearness. Ten thousand individual hairs grew a millionth of an inch on his head. He heard the twin hearts beating in each ear, the third heart beating in his throat, the two hearts throbbing his wrists, the real heart pounding his chest. The million pores on his body opened. . . .

“Tom!” Then quieter. “Tom . . . does everyone in the world . . . know he’s alive?”

“Sure. Heck, yes!”

“I sure hope they do,” whispered Douglas. “Oh, I sure hope they know.”

Have you ever been driving and suddenly, with a jolt, you realize it's you that's driving and wonder how you're doing it? Or looked in the mirror and all of a sudden it's like you're seeing your face for the first time ever? It's always been yours, but suddenly you're aware of having a body in a way you never were before? That passage epitomizes that feeling for me, a feeling which, I admit, I haven't felt in a long time.
(less)

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May 16, 2013 Andrea Mullarkey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

Ray Bradbury is one of those authors, and this is a particular one of his books, that I feel a little embarrassed to say I don’t really know. In my ongoing quest to find downloadable audiobooks in a format I can listen to on my phone, this was a natural pick. I had very high hopes for it, the story being the sort of thing people ooh and aah over liberally. But from the very opening sequence I was disappointed. It was an over-sweet nostalgia-bomb with characters who were too pat to care about. An...more Ray Bradbury is one of those authors, and this is a particular one of his books, that I feel a little embarrassed to say I don’t really know. In my ongoing quest to find downloadable audiobooks in a format I can listen to on my phone, this was a natural pick. I had very high hopes for it, the story being the sort of thing people ooh and aah over liberally. But from the very opening sequence I was disappointed. It was an over-sweet nostalgia-bomb with characters who were too pat to care about. And worst of all the storytelling style was so disjointed I was often confused what was going on. When it ended I was so let down that I did something I rarely do – I went back to one of my friends who gave it highest praise and asked her what she was talking about. As she described the book she loved and I thought about the book I read it quickly became clear that it was not the same book. And I don’t mean in that “no two readers read the same book” way. I mean that the Colonial Radio Players version of Dandelion Wine bore little resemblance to Bradbury’s book. I know that full cast recordings and dramatizations can take some liberties with a story, but this was ridiculous.

Eager to redeem the experience I got the print version and devoured it. It was a wonderful reflection on childhood, small town life, and what it always seemed to me that summer ought to mean. Which made me even more indignant at the poor rendering the Colonial Radio Players gave it. I will say that they captured a strong sense of nostalgia, and they kept many of the same characters. Even some of the scenes were familiar. But they missed the mark on the tension between childhood and adulthood and the balance between sweet and sour in life. And what a loss! Bradbury’s book is a beautiful reminiscence based on his own childhood. It is steeped in both carefully rendered realistic detail and childlike wonder and imagination. Bradbury is graceful in manipulating time to suit the character’s needs and the reader is embedded in a magical journey with them. It was a marvelous coming-of-age story where in the end I was both grateful for childhood and adulthood, quite remarkable indeed.

Just stay away from the Colonial Radio Players version if you’re going to go with an audiobook.(less)

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May 09, 2013 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

I fairly loved "Dandelion Wine", recently given to me by a friend but somehow overlooked by me until now. As "a semi-autobiographical" novel it is often seen as nostalgic; but I think Bradbury's tone is so elegiac that I frequently thought of another paean to lost youth, Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill". It seemed to me that the book got off to a slow, awkward start establishing this tone, but eventually Bradbury hits his stride and the reading becomes more compelling.

Besides having "Fern Hill" come to...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Totally enjoyed being taken back to my 1950s childhood
I don't know if all people think the decades of their childhood and teens were the best ever,but I know I loved mine,and my son born in 1970 thinks his was the best,and this story set in a wonderful summer of 1928 sounds just like mine,even though I am a female baby-boomer!

I too remember the magic of a new pair of sneakers and how they felt like they were made of "marshmallows and coiled springs" and it felt like we could run faster and jumpe...more

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About Ray Bradbury

American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He bec...more American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.

Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.

Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.

Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their numerous cats. Together, they raised four daughters and had eight grandchildren. Sadly, Maggie passed away in November of 2003.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."(less)

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Quotes from Dandelion Wine

“Some people turn sad awfully young. No special reason, it seems, but they seem almost to be born that way. They bruise easier, tire faster, cry quicker, remember longer and, as I say, get sadder younger than anyone else in the world. I know, for I'm one of them.” — 909 people liked it

“A good night sleep, or a ten minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine.” — 376 people liked it

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