{"id":46552,"date":"2026-05-26T21:24:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46552"},"modified":"2026-05-26T21:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:24:52","slug":"review-of-dream-on-by-shannon-hale-and-marcela-cespedes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46552","title":{"rendered":"Review of Dream On, by Shannon Hale and Marcela Cespedes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dream On<\/em><\/p>\n

written by Shannon Hale
\nillustrated by Marcela Cespedes
\ncolors by Lark Pien<\/p>\n

Roaring Brook Press, 2025. 236 pages.
\nReview written May 26, 2026, from a library book.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

I always love it when a children’s book features a big family. We kids from big families are underrepresented, because all those characters are hard to keep track of. This is a graphic novel about a middle school kid named Cassie who’s dealing with friendships and family relationships – so pretty much your classic middle school graphi novel. It reminds me very much of Shannon Hale’s autobiographical Real Friends<\/a><\/em> series, because Cassie, too, is imaginative and not willing to give up pretend play as quickly as her friends are.<\/p>\n

One of the features of this book is that early on, Cassie opens a letter that tells her she’s “already won” three fabulous prizes. So she keeps the mailer and thinks about what she’ll do with the prizes when she gets them. And she doesn’t order magazines – it says “No Purchase Necessary” – and doesn’t enclose any money, but she does put stickers for the magazines she likes in the spots on the order form.<\/p>\n

The magazines start coming. What will her mother say when she finds out Cassie sent that in? That’s scarier than thinking about what she’ll say when they all get into their new car so they don’t have to go places in two shifts.<\/p>\n

So at home, Cassie dreams about that – and finally getting attention from her mother. (The reader doesn’t have to try to keep track of the siblings in her family. There are a lot.) At school, there’ a new girl who’s coming between Cassie and her long-time best friend. And the new girl thinks Cassie’s favorite teacher is weird. Is she maybe right about that? It’s so hard to tell.<\/p>\n

I like Cassie’s character because I was an imaginative kid, too – though I’d pretty much stopped admitting to it by middle school. But I also remember the fascination of those “YOU may HAVE ALREADY WON!!!” letters in the mail. My older siblings were quick to disillusion me, but I may have, well, ordered some magazines when I was a young adult. And daydreamed at least a little about what I’d do if I won. So Cassie’s predicament was easy to imagine.<\/p>\n

This book came out in 2025, but our order was a casualty of Baker and Taylor going out of business, and it accidentally didn’t get reordered and the holds have piled up. But I’m happy it’s arrived just in time for summer reading, and the second book in the series, coming out in August.<\/p>\n

shannonhale.com<\/a>
\nmackids.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/dream_on.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dream On written by Shannon Hale illustrated by Marcela Cespedes colors by Lark Pien Roaring Brook Press, 2025. 236 pages. Review written May 26, 2026, from a library book. Starred Review I always love it when a children’s book features a big family. We kids from big families are underrepresented, because all those characters are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,21,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-contemporary","category-graphic-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46556,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46552\/revisions\/46556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}