Chile, Miners, Poets and Prizes

Last week the entire world celebrated as the 33 trapped Chilean miners were finally rescued. It's very hard to imagine what that experience must have been like. While reading some of the reports of rescued miners, I happened to pick up a book by Pam Munoz Ryan, author of Esperanza Rising. Her new book, The Dreamer, tells the story of a young Chilean boy named Neftali Reyes. Neftali spends much of his life daydreaming about words, the natural world and everyday objects he finds fascinating. All of his daydreaming puts him at conflict with his father who wishes for his youngest son to become stronger and one day grow up to be a dentist or doctor. Neftali's attention to the smallest details of his world keeps getting him into trouble and soon his love of writing does the same. It isn't long before he finds that he is hiding who he really is from his father. One day, Nefatali Reyes will become the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The illustrations in the book, drawn by Peter Sis, hint at what is to come in each chapter. The beautiful description of Chile makes me want to visit! This is a really beautiful book that shows even the smallest of us can one day be great.