Review by Rockabye Butterfly
Book Summary: Temba is a boy who has many dreams. Owning a bicycle, and living in a safe neighborhood are two of his dreams. Temba’s favorite dream is to visit the ocean. He longs to hear the sound of the crashing waves and to taste the salty water. One day he enters a contest. The prize is a trip to the seaside by train! Temba believes in the Dream Giver; but as with any dream, he learns that obstacles may arise that threaten to steal a dream away.
When I read this book, I assumed the Dream Giver was God. Temba lives in a poor neighbourhood with not much and uses his dreams to carry him away to a better place. He dreams of visiting the seaside and asks the "Dream Giver" to have his dreams come true. It teaches that sometimes dreams can come true, and it seems to be a book to encourage children to keep dreaming because big things can happen when you dream. A good character building lesson in this book I would say is "holding hope". Even when Temba thought he failed, he was upset, but he still held hope, still dreamed and woke up happy. It reminds me of when we go through rough times in our lives, we still hold onto hope, to our Faith, which in turn keeps us positive. And sometimes, when it's according to His plan, dreams do come true! Which is a good lesson to teach after the book is read.
My daughter liked this book because she is a true beach baby and loves the beach! This book had the beach in it! :) I'm not sure she grasped the full message in this book at 3.5 years old, but I am for sure going to be referring to this book also, later on when we will be working on more extensive Character Studies together in the future.
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