-: Hi, my name is Lorelei Savaryn,
and I'm the author of "The Circus of Stolen Dreams",
releasing September 1st, 2020,
from Penguin Random House, Philomel.
If I were going to book talk my story
to a teacher colleague,
I would say that this is the story
of a girl who carries a really heavy burden
on her shoulders,
and she tries to run away from her sadness,
in a circus filled with dreams and nightmares
and immersive experiences,
and she thinks it's going to be the perfect escape.
But the sadness that she carries with her,
isn't so easy to run away from.
And when she ends up going into a nightmare tent,
that contains the nightmare her brother used to have,
before he disappeared, at that point she realizes,
if his nightmare is inside the circus,
then her brother has been to the circus, too.
And even more than that, he might never have left.
At that point, her journey changes,
and she ends up pursuing finding out
if her brother is somehow still in Reverie's Land of Dreams.
And if he is,
if she can find a way to save him, and bring him home.
And along the way,
my main character learns that she is a lot braver,
and a lot stronger than she thought she was, at the start.
When I was teaching,
I always paid attention to the kinds of books
that my students were gravitating toward,
and that got passed around the classroom,
and shared widely and discussed widely,
outside of reading time.
And it was my goal, when I set out to write this story,
to write the kind of book that would grab hold of a reader,
and not let them go until the final page had been finished.
My teaching experience also really informed
the content of the story that I wrote.
I knew very early on in my pursuit of publication,
that I did not want to shy away from the harder,
more difficult things in life.
Our students deal with a lot, at a very young age sometimes,
and my story addresses the issue of divorce,
and also of grief.
It deals with those things in an ultimately hopeful
and healing way,
but I wanted students to be able to read this book,
and perhaps feel a bit less alone, or feel a bit comforted.
Or just have the chance to walk alongside a journey,
with a character that they can relate to,
and something that maybe isn't easy to talk about,
or that's been a burden on their own hearts.
If I can take my experience as a teacher,
and use it to write stories that make kids feel seen,
or heard, or that they aren't alone,
then I feel like my stories will have accomplished
what I set out for them to do.
It was one of my favorite things as a teacher
to pull in a mentor text from a story that we had loved,
and I would be delighted to find any classrooms
that felt like they could do that,
with "The Circus of Stolen Dreams", too.
I found that the lessons that I use mentor texts for,
really stuck with my students,
and translated into a lasting change in their writing.
And they really remembered that,
Hey, this author that I loved did this thing,
and now I, as a writer, do this thing, too.
If I were going to use "The Circus of Stolen Dreams"
inside of my classroom,
one of the things I would consider doing,
is using it as a read-aloud.
I think it's a really gripping story,
that would capture the imagination of the students
who read it, but there are also a lot of layers to unpack,
and a lot of things that you could dig into as a teacher,
reading this out loud to a class.
On my website,
I have a list of discussion questions
for the end of each chapter,
that could be used to spark conversation.
I would also consider using "The Circus of Stolen Dreams"
as a book club for a group of students.
I have book club discussion questions on my website,
that could be really great starting points for them,
to dig into different aspects of the story.
I would absolutely recommend pairing my story
with either "Circus Mirandus" by Cassie Beasley,
or, "The Night Gardener" by Jonathan Auxier.
Both of those books are written
by two of my favorite authors,
and "Circus Mirandus" has the circus,
and the mysterious magic that goes along with it,
and "The Night Gardener" is wonderful
for that creepy element,
but also a story that has a lot of heart,
along with the scary parts.
And so those I think would be amazing companions
for my story.