The Daydreamer

by Ian McEwan, Anthony Browne (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

One of McEwan’s only books written for children, in this fantastical story, a young boy’s daydreams take him to the magical lands of fairy tale stories. Escaping his normal existence, he imagines turning into a cat, making people disappear and even trying his hand at adulthood. Many of McEwan’s favorite themes for his adult fiction make appearances even here in his children’s book.

"Peter Fortune is a dreamer . . . [and here are seven of] his fabulous daydreams. Each is a separate adventure, [among them] taming a bully and catching a burglar, and young readers should have no trouble empathizing with his escapades. A delightful blend of serious whimsy and hilarious gravity."—SLJ. "How would it feel to swap bodies with a cat, with a baby, with a grown-up? To be those creatures and still have your ten-year-old consciousness? British author McEwan writes a simple, visual prose––comic, deadpan, and lyrical––that captures the physicalness of [this] wild fantasy."—BL. "A rare find." —VOYA.

1995 Notable Trade Books in the Language Arts (NCTE)
Best Books 1994 (SLJ)
100 Titles for Reading and Sharing (NY Public Library)

Author Biography: Ian McEwan received the Somerset Maugham Award for his first collection of short stories, FIRST LOVE, LAST RITES. This was followed by another collection, In BETWEEN THE SHEETS and the novels The Child in Time; The Cement Garden; The Comfort of Strangers, which was nominated for the Booker Prize and is now a major motion picture; The Innocent, soon to be a major motion picture starring Anthony Hopkins; and most recently, Black Dogs. Mr. McEwan lives in Oxford, England with his wife and their four children.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385498050
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/28/2000
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	266,451
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

About the Author

Ian McEwan is the bestselling author of more than ten books, including the novels Atonement, The Comfort of Strangers, and Black Dogs, all shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Amsterdam, winner of the Booker Prize, and The Child in Time, winner of the Whitbread Award, as well as the story collections First Love, Last Rites, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and In Between the Sheets. He lives in London.

Hometown:

Oxford, England

Date of Birth:

June 21, 1948

Place of Birth:

Aldershot, England

Education:

B.A., University of Sussex, 1970; M.A., University of East Anglia, 1971

Website:

http://www.ianmcewan.com

Read an Excerpt

As each chapter of The Daydreamer was completed, I read it aloud to my children. The arrangement was simple. They got the latest installment of what we called the 'Peter stories', and I took away some useful editorial content. This pleasant, almost ritualistic exchange in turn affected the writing itself, in that I became more than usually attentive to the sound of an adult voice speaking each sentence. This adult was not, or not simply, me. Alone in my study, I read aloud passages to an imaginary child (not quite, or not only, one of mine) on behalf of this imaginary adult. Ear and tongue, I wanted to please them both.

The child's needs I thought I knew instinctively: a good tale above all, a sympathetic hero, villains yes, but not all the time because they are too simplifying, clarity in openings, twists in the middle, and satisfying outcomes that were not always happy. For the adult I felt little more than vague sympathy. We all love the idea of bedtime stories -- the fresh minted breath, the wide and trustful eyes, the hot water bottle baking down among the clean linen, the sleepy glowing covenant -- and who would not have the scene carved upon his headstone? But do adults really like children's literature? I've always thought the entusiasm was a little overstated, even desperate. 'Swallows and Amazons? Beatrix Potter? Marvellous books!' Do we really mean it, do we really still enjoy them, or are we speaking up for, and keeping the lines open to, our lost, nearly forgotten selves? When exactly did you last curl up alone with The Swiss Family Robinson?

What we like about children's books is our children's pleasure inthem, and this is less to do with literature and more to do with love. Early on in writing and reading aloud The Daydreamer I began to think it might be better to forget about our mighty tradition of children's literature and to write a book for adults about a child in a language that children could understand. In the century of Hemingway and Calvino simple prose need not deter the sophisticated reader. I hoped the subject matter -- the imagination itself -- was one in which anyone who picks up a book has a stake. Similarly, transformation has been a theme, almost an obsession, in all literatures. The Daydreamer was published in an illustrated edition for children in Britain and the United States, and in a more sober adult form in various other countries. There was once a tradition by which authors dedicate their books to the fates, rather in the manner of a parent sending a child out into the world. 'Goe littel booke...' this one may well settle down after all for a quiet life in a corner of a children's library, or die in oblivion, but for the moment I'm still hoping it might give some pleasure all round.

Ian McEwan
1995

Editorial Reviews

Most grownups think that 10-year-old Peter Fortune is a difficult child because he is so quiet, but through his daydreams he learns to see the world from numerous points of view. In a starred review, PW said, "McEwan's vivid and poetic writing reveals a profound understanding of childhood." Ages 8-up. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Most grown-ups think Peter Fortune is a difficult child because he is so quiet: they ``knew that something was going on inside that head, but they couldn't hear it or see it or feel it. They couldn't tell Peter to stop it, because they didn't know what it was he was doing in there.'' Actually, he is involved in one of his great adventures: exchanging bodies with his ancient pet cat, battling a troop of dolls come to life, making his parents disappear with a vanishing cream or discovering what it is like to be an adult falling in love. Through his daydreams, Peter learns to see the world from numerous points of view. He is the only boy at school, for example, who can recognize the weaknesses of a bully and feel compassion for him. In his first book for children, McEwan ( The Comfort of Strangers ; The Child in Time ) dextrously presents a series of strange and wonderful metamorphoses. His vivid and poetic writing, celebrating the creative abilities of a gifted 10-year-old, reveals a profound understanding of childhood. Illustrations not seen by PW. Ages 8-up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 3-6-Peter Fortune, 10, is a dreamer, and not everyone understands that. He has the usual problems with teachers who think he can't do his schoolwork when he's really just been too busy dreaming up ways to save the world. However, the focus of this book is not on the boy's troubles but rather on his fabulous daydreams. Each of the seven stories following the introduction is a separate adventure, probably occurring mostly in Peter's imagination but including an unusual twist to link it to a real situation. The mood is similar to Edward Eager's Half-Magic (Harcourt, 1954). Even though the magic is presented as real in that book and as imagination here, the connections to reality leave readers feeling that something out of the ordinary has happened, even if it is not stated as such. Peter's adventures include trading bodies with his cat, taming a bully, catching a burglar, and even waking up in the dreaded world of grown-ups, and young readers should have no trouble empathizing with his escapades. Less able readers may find the descriptive writing style a real challenge, but would enjoy hearing the stories read aloud. Brown's illustrations, one per chapter, capture the eeriness of the selections. A delightful blend of serious whimsy and hilarious gravity.-Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA

School Library Journal

Imaginative and sparkling, not a page should be missed.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune

“As far-fetched and funny as anything by Roald Dahl.”
—Vogue

“Brilliant... the quality of imagination at play here is something special.”
—The Times Educational Supplement (UK)

"A shivery, prickly joy"
—The Globe and Mail

"A classic."
—The Financial Post

"Mr. McEwan at his best."
—-The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher