Dreamsleeves

paige5205 - i think its a really good book. Its about this girl name Aislinn and she lives with her mom, dad, nana, brothers and sisters names beck, callie, dooley, and eddie and they had a baby on the way. She doesn't get to spend time with her friends because she has to stay home and clean, teach the kids, and feed and bath them so she went to a church thing and and they had to put their dreams in a box so she was thinking why put it in a box when u can put it on your sleeves so everyone can see it and help it come true so she got these tags and wrote her dream on it and put it on her sleeve so when her parents and other people would see it and help make it come true, her first one was to get a new bathing suit and her mom saw it and got her one then her second one was to go to the pool party and she got to then her last one was to make her dad stop drinking because he had a drinking problem so she put it on her sleeve and wore it to church and the church man saw it and came by her house and talk to her dad about it but he kept drinking then her neighbor Maria saw it to and she had made her dad some appointments to go to a AA meeting and help her dad stop then he stop drinking after it so she went to the church and made a announcement about it and people start doing it and it made alot of peoples dreams come true, there was this one man at the church who was really quiet and would always look at aislinn and when he heard about dreamsleeves he tried it and came up to her and thanked her and she looked at his dream and it said "please let me meet my grandchilden" and he did, they were playing around with him and he looked happy so i would read this book if i were u.

March 5, 2012
The summer before eighth grade is proving difficult for 12-year-old Aislinn O’Neill. When her Nana leaves town for a few months, her father’s drinking and physical and emotional abuse escalate, and Aislinn fears he’ll never buy the family’s promised dream house (“the one with the stream and the apple trees”). Her mother is pregnant with a sixth child, her uncles are serving in Vietnam, and Aislinn worries both that a boy named Mike Mancinello will never ask her out and that she’s losing her best friend. Yet Aislinn’s optimism, her Peely-Stick Shop (a blissfully isolated fort in the woods), and her “wide-awake dreams” keep her afloat and offer escape while she cares for her younger siblings. Adding to an overall uplifting atmosphere, Paratore (the Wedding Planner’s Daughter series) begins each chapter with inspirational quotes from various writers, and she creates a believable home environment for her heroine. Aislinn is sympathetic, selfless, and strong, and her intimate narration carries this story about the difference between hoping for change and making it happen. Ages 10–14. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary.

February 15, 2012
This inspirational story set in the 1960s will resonate with a wide range of readers. Aislinn O'Neill is expecting big things in the summer before her eighth-grade year. She dreams that her father will quit drinking, that her family will finally own their own home and that a boy named Mike Mancinello will like her. Tall orders all. And it's not like she gets to devote all of her time to seeing them come true. Aislinn, or A for short, is in charge of her four younger siblings--B, C, D and E--while her parents are at work. Even when her parents are home, she is expected to help with household duties and is forbidden from socializing with her peers by her overprotective, controlling, alcoholic father. Aislinn never loses hope, however, and finally she hits upon an idea that just might work. Everyone needs help to make dreams come true, she reasons, and how can others help if people's dreams are tucked too deeply inside their hearts to ever be seen by anyone else? Aislinn grabs a label, prints a wish on it, sticks it right on her sleeve and starts a mini-revolution. While a few passages lean precariously toward the polemical and the resolutions are pretty quick and tidy, readers will be too squarely in A's court to care. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2012

Gr 5-7-If the producers of The Secret teamed up with members of Al-Anon to create a didactic novel for preteens, Dreamsleeves might be the result. Set during the Vietnam War era, the story recounts 12-year-old Aislinn's frustration with her alcoholic father. There are blissful moments in her life-tea with her grandmother, perfect grilled-cheese sandwiches, and a kiss from her crush Mike Mancinello-but they are tempered by the ever-present rage that lurks within her father. As Aislinn attempts to avert his cruelty, she ponders her name (which means "dream" in old Irish). She decides to write her dreams on sticky name tags and attach them to her sleeve. In this way, she believes, everyone can help to make her dreams come true. The plan works several times. She gets a new bathing suit, her brother gets tickets to a ball game, and she bumps into Mike. The Law of Attraction seems to turn her life around. Desperately, she makes the wish for her dad to stop drinking and boldly wears this wish to church. What she finds is what every person involved with an alcoholic knows-dreams cannot stop a drinker. The period might not grab everyone (references to old songs, limbo, and purgatory) and some of the dialogue is stiff, but the emotions are universal. Aislinn is helpless while watching alcoholism destroy her family. The push for Al-Anon in the end is slightly heavy, but perhaps school psychologists or social workers might use Dreamsleeves successfully.-Pamela Schembri, Newburgh Enlarged City Schools, NY

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2012
Grades 7-9 Aislinn has big dreams for her summer vacation, like dating Mike Mancinello and going to her first boy-girl party. However, staying home and watching her four younger siblings and trying to avoid her drunk father teach her that dreams, both big and small, have to be fought for. She devises a plan to write her dreams on stickers and wear them on her shirtsleeves. They slowly start coming true, but can dreamsleeves help with her biggest dream of all? Paratore, author of the Wedding Planner's Daughter series, has created a story in which many can find hope. The 1960s setting adds an element of charm, but this is primarily about Aislinn and her father as she copes with the guilt and worry that plague many children whose parents struggle with alcoholism. Readers, especially those who may deal with similar problems, will find this a pertinent message wrapped in an emotional, realistic story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)