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The Dream Carvers
It is the 11th century, a time of struggle and hardship in what will become the province of Newfoundland. Thrand, a Viking boy from Greenland, is proud to have been chosen to go on a voyage to Leifsbudir in Northern Newfoundland. But events take a disastrous turn when Thrand is captured by the Beothuks, the “red ochre people.” On which side of the cultural divide will he ultimately stand: with his heritage, or with his new people?
264 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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104 people want to read
About the author
Joan Clark
35 books52 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Joan Clark BA, D.Litt (hon.) (née MacDonald)is a Canadian fiction author.
Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She attended Acadia University for its drama program, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with English major in 1957.[1] She has worked as a teacher
Clark lived in Alberta for two decades and attended Edmonton's University of Alberta. She and Edna Alford started the literary journal Dandelion in that province in the mid-1970s. She eventually returned to Atlantic Canada, settling in Newfoundland.
Joan Clark's early work consisted primarily of literature for children and young adults, such as Girl of the Rockies (1968), The Hand of Robin Squires (1977), and The Moons of Madeleine (1987). By contrast, her 1982 short-story collection, From a High Thin Wire, is a decidedly mature and sometimes sexually charged work. This volume was revisited by Clark and republished with revisions in 2004. Clark has a reputation for continuously revising her works even after their initial printing.
Joan Clark's next publication for adult readers was The Victory of Geraldine Gull (1988), a novel examining the clashes of culture and religion between Cree, Ojibwa, and white communities in Niska, a village in Hudson Bay. The Victory of Geraldine Gull was a finalist for the GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD and the Books in Canada First Novel Award. Clark published a second collection of short stories, Swimming Towards the Light, in 1990. The following year she was presented with the Marian Engel Award, recognizing her entire body of work.
Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck (1993) was the first of two novels by Clark based on the Viking presence in Newfoundland. The novel focuses on Freydis Eiriksdottir, daughter of Eirik the Red and sister to Leif ("The Lucky") Eirikson. The Dream Carvers (1995) follows the adventures of Thrand, a Norse child.
Clark wrote her first published novel as a young stay-at-home mother, writing in longhand during her infant son’s naptimes. “I had never written fiction before and was amazed that I had been walking around without knowing that there was a story inside my head. That joy of discovery has kept me writing ever since.”
Clark served on the jury at the 2001 Giller Prize.
Clark lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Joan Clark BA, D.Litt (hon.) (née MacDonald)is a Canadian fiction author.
Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She attended Acadia University for its drama program, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with English major in 1957.[1] She has worked as a teacher
Clark lived in Alberta for two decades and attended Edmonton's University of Alberta. She and Edna Alford started the literary journal Dandelion in that province in the mid-1970s. She eventually returned to Atlantic Canada, settling in Newfoundland.
Joan Clark's early work consisted primarily of literature for children and young adults, such as Girl of the Rockies (1968), The Hand of Robin Squires (1977), and The Moons of Madeleine (1987). By contrast, her 1982 short-story collection, From a High Thin Wire, is a decidedly mature and sometimes sexually charged work. This volume was revisited by Clark and republished with revisions in 2004. Clark has a reputation for continuously revising her works even after their initial printing.
Joan Clark's next publication for adult readers was The Victory of Geraldine Gull (1988), a novel examining the clashes of culture and religion between Cree, Ojibwa, and white communities in Niska, a village in Hudson Bay. The Victory of Geraldine Gull was a finalist for the GOVERNOR GENERAL'S AWARD and the Books in Canada First Novel Award. Clark published a second collection of short stories, Swimming Towards the Light, in 1990. The following year she was presented with the Marian Engel Award, recognizing her entire body of work.
Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck (1993) was the first of two novels by Clark based on the Viking presence in Newfoundland. The novel focuses on Freydis Eiriksdottir, daughter of Eirik the Red and sister to Leif ("The Lucky") Eirikson. The Dream Carvers (1995) follows the adventures of Thrand, a Norse child.
Clark wrote her first published novel as a young stay-at-home mother, writing in longhand during her infant son’s naptimes. “I had never written fiction before and was amazed that I had been walking around without knowing that there was a story inside my head. That joy of discovery has kept me writing ever since.”
Clark served on the jury at the 2001 Giller Prize.
Clark lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 6, 2012
Have you ever read a novel set in 12th century Newfoundland? It seems rare to read a book set in a unique time and place, making this a refreshing read from the start.
I enjoy fiction that teaches something about history. This book does that. And not in a boring way. The history lesson is a part of the story itself.
As well as appealing to history buffs this novel is also literary, jumping between perspectives throughout. The target audience here is young adult, but is the kind of YA book that can be read and enjoyed by young and old alike.
The ending is great, non-conventional, and I wanted to keep on reading.
Oh, and I finished it in two days. Another mark of a fantastic book. Recommended!
I enjoy fiction that teaches something about history. This book does that. And not in a boring way. The history lesson is a part of the story itself.
As well as appealing to history buffs this novel is also literary, jumping between perspectives throughout. The target audience here is young adult, but is the kind of YA book that can be read and enjoyed by young and old alike.
The ending is great, non-conventional, and I wanted to keep on reading.
Oh, and I finished it in two days. Another mark of a fantastic book. Recommended!
August 14, 2015
I enjoyed "The Dream Carvers" on the whole, but I have mixed feelings about a lot of it.
It's true that Clark tells the story in a very plain, if not downright tedious style, with almost no characterization. But I don't think Joan Clark was attempting to write a very literary book--it seemed more like an attempt to personalize history for young readers.
The individuals don't matter so much, they're just meant to represent different cultural point-of-views. For example, Thrand should probably be called "Bland", but he is a useful placeholder for the White reader. We learn a bit about his Viking culture, but he's mostly used as a way to teach the reader about Beothuk customs. All the Aboriginal people we meet are pretty generic too.
So fine, maybe Clark is just trying to bring history to life. She certainly did a better job on that front, but I still found her historical approach problematic. While she definitely did her research, research that provides a lot of wonderful details about the quotidian life of the Beothuks, she fell prey to romanticizing Native culture. While some glossing over of ugly details are to be expected from a children's author (she's not going to have the Natives torture Thrand or anything), she takes it a little too far, basically painting the Europeans as evil, and the Native culture as utopian. I think this sort of idealization of First Nations people is almost as bad as demonizing them, since both involve white people appropriating and distorting the cultural narratives that don't belong to them.
For all its shortcomings, "The Dream Carvers" got me more interested in Native culture and history, so I consider that a worthwhile read.
It's true that Clark tells the story in a very plain, if not downright tedious style, with almost no characterization. But I don't think Joan Clark was attempting to write a very literary book--it seemed more like an attempt to personalize history for young readers.
The individuals don't matter so much, they're just meant to represent different cultural point-of-views. For example, Thrand should probably be called "Bland", but he is a useful placeholder for the White reader. We learn a bit about his Viking culture, but he's mostly used as a way to teach the reader about Beothuk customs. All the Aboriginal people we meet are pretty generic too.
So fine, maybe Clark is just trying to bring history to life. She certainly did a better job on that front, but I still found her historical approach problematic. While she definitely did her research, research that provides a lot of wonderful details about the quotidian life of the Beothuks, she fell prey to romanticizing Native culture. While some glossing over of ugly details are to be expected from a children's author (she's not going to have the Natives torture Thrand or anything), she takes it a little too far, basically painting the Europeans as evil, and the Native culture as utopian. I think this sort of idealization of First Nations people is almost as bad as demonizing them, since both involve white people appropriating and distorting the cultural narratives that don't belong to them.
For all its shortcomings, "The Dream Carvers" got me more interested in Native culture and history, so I consider that a worthwhile read.
October 8, 2024
If my class had not studied this book in grade 7, I would probably give it a higher rating. But as it was, we were forced to find some kind of meaning in this rather simplistic and dull book. There's only so much you can say about it and droning on and on about the thing for a month felt insulting to my intelligence. Not a bad book in and of itself, but not fine literature either. If you are looking for Canadian historical fiction for kids I'd recommend The King's Daughter instead.
July 12, 2019
Lovely YA book set in 11th-century Newfoundland. Joan Clark's meticulous research and imaginative speculation about Newfoundland and Viking culture bring these historic peoples to life. Especially poignant from the prospective of knowing how it all turns out--the return of Europeans centuries later proves cataclysmic for the descendants of the Osweet with whom a young Greenlander finds himself, utterly cut off from his own heritage.
As other reviewers have noted, Clark goes into pretty specific detail about Osweet and Viking life: how to make a boats, prepare food, create community. But I never found that this exposition went on long enough to take me away from the narrative. I also noticed that there were sections in which I initially did not know whose perspective was featured: the Viking man or the Osweet woman. I actually liked this; it highlighted the commonality of two young people struggling with emerging identity and adulthood.
If you have read Clark's Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck, this book is a must-read follow-up!
As other reviewers have noted, Clark goes into pretty specific detail about Osweet and Viking life: how to make a boats, prepare food, create community. But I never found that this exposition went on long enough to take me away from the narrative. I also noticed that there were sections in which I initially did not know whose perspective was featured: the Viking man or the Osweet woman. I actually liked this; it highlighted the commonality of two young people struggling with emerging identity and adulthood.
If you have read Clark's Eiriksdottir: A Tale of Dreams and Luck, this book is a must-read follow-up!
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July 31, 2023I read this book because my daughter LOVED The Hand of Robin Squires and I wanted to pre read some other Joan Clark books before giving them to her. I did find this book very riveting and I had trouble putting it down, but in the end I found there was just a bit too much sexuality lurking beneath the surface for me to pass it on to her. I am finding this with so many children’s/youth novels! Things are just not portrayed the way I want to talk to her about these topics. It’s disappointing because I did like a lot of things about this novel.
October 28, 2018
Truly enjoyable imagination of the Beothuk people meeting vikings
October 4, 2014
The Dream Carvers, Joan Clark's teen historical novel, is a coming of age story about Thrand, a fourteen-year-old Greenlander kidnapped by the Osweet, a local First Nation tribe. An important part of Canada's ancient history of Newfoundland, the Osweet contact with the Norsemen who sailed there in search of timber to build ships, is presented through Thrand's struggle to return home. Two opposing cultures, clashing morally and ethically, are juxtaposed. Thrand must choose between his stern, violent and unforgiving upbringing and the more gentle, compromising way of life with the Osweet.
Thrand falls in love with Abidith, sister to the young Osweet murdered by his own people, but she chooses to marry someone else. His emotional journey is depicted through his dreams and carvings. This is a good read, educational as well as entertaining.
Thrand falls in love with Abidith, sister to the young Osweet murdered by his own people, but she chooses to marry someone else. His emotional journey is depicted through his dreams and carvings. This is a good read, educational as well as entertaining.
May 15, 2016
This isn’t my favorite book, but it is decent. It is the only age appropriate book for grades 7-9 I have found to date that tells the story of both the Norsemen and the Beothuk peoples in Canada. It tells the story of a Norse boy who is captured and adopted by the Beothuk people. He must decide whether he will stay with them or escape back to his people when they return in the spring. The author has used the known Beothuk history, archaeological information about the Norsemen as well as the Norse Sagas to construct this story. They chose to have the main character and a Beothuk girl communicate telepathically through dreams. I found this awkward, but not offensive. I think with a little more effort the same information could have been communicated more believably in a different way.
November 7, 2022
Good if you want to teach about living in the north, the tug of living between two cultures, the impact of history on today, the struggle of reading names and words from completely unfamiliar languages. But it's slow. And all that foreign language is tedious.
I used it as a read aloud for my class. It took 60% of the book before they started to really engage. When they did they used all the 'carving' imagery to pull together any kind of meaning in the text.
It was okay. We made it work. I don't recommend it.
I used it as a read aloud for my class. It took 60% of the book before they started to really engage. When they did they used all the 'carving' imagery to pull together any kind of meaning in the text.
It was okay. We made it work. I don't recommend it.
Want to read
March 18, 2013I love the Book it is so loving
May 28, 2013
Not very interesting. A little blah and predictable. Started it this morning and finished it up already, but it wasn't exactly captivating.
September 24, 2014
Entertaining
November 9, 2017
WOBEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews