The Dreamer

By: Pam Munoz Ryan

Narrated by: Tony Chiroldes

Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Neftalí’s father wants him to be a doctor. But Neftalí is not like other children. How he reconciles his own dreams with his father’s is at the heart of this profoundly moving story of the life of poet Pablo Neruda.

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. Under the canopy of the lush rain forest, into the fearsome sea, and through the persistent Chilean rain, he listens and he follows.

Combining elements of magical realism with biography, poetry, and literary fiction, Pam Muñoz Ryan takes listeners on a rare journey of the heart and imagination.

©2010 Pam Munoz Ryan (P)2010 Scholastic

Beautiful and Engaging Story of a Young Pablo Neruda

What a beautiful and inspiring story about following your heart and pursuing your dreams. This is a story based on the life of the young Pablo Neruda, Nobel prize winning poet from Chile. Excellent narration makes the story and characters come alive, and I couldn’t stop listening. It was refreshing to hear voice with an authentic Latino accent. The author, Pam Muñoz Ryan, delivers another brilliant multi-layered story about a young boy who is a dreamer, a lover of words, an observer of nature and people, a shy romantic who knows he doesn’t fit in, but only wants his strict father’s approval and acknowledgment of his passion. The story also weaves in, with honesty and integrity, the struggle of the indigenous Mapuche peoples’ to claim their sovereign Chilean land.
I highly recommend this book for 4th or 5th grade readers to adult. Poignant, inspiring, beautiful, and historical in context, I highly recommend this wonderful book! (and also all of Pam Muñoz Ryan’s books)

This was inspirational and it helps us understand that no matter what people says we are capable of anything

Like a said this is inspirational and I love to recommend this to others.

I loved how Neftali overcame his fear of telling his father what is right I did not dislike anything.

I would love to recommend it to everyone especially people who follows other people's orders

Then again you can add 1 or 2 more drawings so people can picture what is happening

Not recommending ...

I struggled to finish this title. I read this book as a challenge to myself to complete all the novels in my 5th grade classroom. I wanted to do this to be able to give authentic recommendations to my students. This is a book I will probably recommend sparingly. I did not enjoy this at all.

an audiobook with the main character that stutters

Just cant get thru it where the main character stutters every other word. Torture. Had high hopes for the book, too.