Awake and DreamingAwake and Dreaming, by Kit Pearson, Puffin Books, 1996.

Even the happiest child longs, sometimes, for another life. And Theo is far from happy: she’s the perpetual new kid, moving from school to school while her mother, Rae, struggles to pay the bills and seems more concerned with her own loneliness than she is with Rae’s shabby clothes and tendency to withdraw into books and her own imagination.

Things hit a crisis when Rae decides to move in with her boyfriend, and takes Theo by ferry to live in Victoria with her aunt Sharon. On the ferry, something strange happens: Theo meets a family like she’s always dreamed of being a part of, four children, with a brother and sister older than she is and a brother and sister younger than she. In desperation, she wishes on the new moon that this could be her family, and suddenly, her wish comes true. She wakes up in their house, a new and completely accepted member of the family.

But just as mysteriously as her new life began, it fades. And Theo is left to try and make sense of her life, both as it is and as she knows it was, however briefly.

This is a beautiful book, with shout-outs to some of my favorite books from childhood (The All-of-a-Kind Family! Half Magic!). Theo is a sympathetic and believable character, as are her families, be they her aunt and mother or the dream-or-reality Kaldors. And though the conclusion isn’t necessarily the one the reader might wish for midway through the book, it’s well developed and satisfying.

Children as young as eight (a year younger than Theo) or as old as thirteen should enjoy this book, particularly those lucky enough to have read some of the books that Theo enjoys. And for those who haven’t yet discovered the joys hiding behind the “ugly covers” in their school or public library, Theo might be just the guide.