The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan

The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan

Pura Belpré Award Winner

A tender, transcendent, and meticulously crafted novel from Newbery Honoree, Pam Muñoz Ryan, and three-time Caldecott Honoree, Peter Sís!

From the time he is a young boy, Neftalí hears the call of a mysterious voice. Even when the neighborhood children taunt him, and when his harsh, authoritarian father ridicules him, and when he doubts himself, Neftalí knows he cannot ignore the call. He listens and follows as it leads him under the canopy of the lush rain forest, into the fearsome sea, and through the persistent Chilean rain on an inspiring voyage of self-discovery that will transform his life and, ultimately, the world.

Combining elements of magical realism with biography, poetry, literary fiction, and transporting illustrations, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís take readers on a rare journey of the heart and imagination as they explore the inspiring early life of the poet who became Pablo Neruda.

Pam Muoz Ryan is the author of Echo, a New York Times Best Seller, a Newbery Honor Novel from 2016, and the Kirkus Award winner. She has authored over forty novels for children and has received numerous awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts' Human and Civil Rights Prize, the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, the Willa Cather Award, the Pura Belpré Medal, and the PEN USA Award. Esperanza Rising, Riding Freedom, Becoming Naomi León, Paint the Wind, and The Dreamer are some of her novels.