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Schmidt, G. Z.

The Dreamweavers

272 pp. | Holiday | September, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-8234-4423-6 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-8234-5025-1 $10.99
(2) 4-6 A ghostly City of Ashes, a disappearing moon, and a sudden snowstorm are just some of the supernatural occurrences that kick off this mythology-inspired adventure novel set in China during the Ming Dynasty. Our protagonists are Mei and Yun Wu, twelve-year-old orphaned twins scrambling to rescue their grandpa after a disastrous encounter with the emperor's son during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Wu twins' tale overlaps with the story of Lotus, a beautiful, haunted poet who cursed the region seventy years earlier when her ­family was torn apart by a scorned admirer. Along with a bratty noble boy and an inventive princess, the Jade Rabbit (a celestial being with magical powers) helps the peasant siblings on their quest in the Imperial City. Schmidt's story contains many familiar folktale plot points and tropes--magical travel, cases of mistaken identity, riddles. Passages about the book's titular "dream weaving" are whimsically described. The prose does contain a few anachronisms (some dialogue sounds more like ­modern-day speech, and today's Western units of time and speed are used), but they won't be distracting to most readers. An entertaining tale for those who enjoyed Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (rev. 9/09) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but might not be quite ready for the scary parts of the Harry Potter and Narnia books.
Reviewer: Michelle Lee | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

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