Dream On

Gr 3-6–As one of six kids, Cassie doesn’t get much one-on-one time with her parents and often feels overlooked. When her best friend, Vali, starts to hang out with a mean girl in their class, Cassie feels abandoned with no one to talk to. So, when Cassie receives a sweepstakes mail flyer telling her she is a grand prize winner, she’s thrilled and sends back her award-winning slip, eagerly deciding what grand prizes she will select. But the grand prizes don’t come, and magazines her family can’t afford start showing up instead. Cassie is determined to keep her prize-winner status a secret but doesn’t know how to make the magazines disappear or how to get her friend to talk to her again. This story stands out from many current friendship graphic novels because Cassie is younger, still in fourth grade. The book takes place sometime in the past 50 years, post-television but pre-cellphone—close enough to current times to feel relatable, but distant enough that some kids might not understand certain plot elements, like the sweepstakes flyer. Even with the setting creating some roadblocks for readers, the graphic novel effectively captures both friendship drama and the difficulties of living in a large family. A good option for fans of Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham’s “Real Friends” series. Cassie and her family are white, Vali has brown skin.