WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.460 --> 00:00:06.590 Hi, my name is Lorelei Savaryn, 2 00:00:06.590 --> 00:00:09.080 and I'm the author of "The Circus of Stolen Dreams", 3 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:11.410 releasing September 1st, 2020, 4 00:00:11.410 --> 00:00:13.743 from Penguin Random House, Philomel. 5 00:00:18.610 --> 00:00:20.550 If I were going to book talk my story 6 00:00:20.550 --> 00:00:21.860 to a teacher colleague, 7 00:00:21.860 --> 00:00:23.440 I would say that this is the story 8 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.090 of a girl who carries a really heavy burden 9 00:00:26.090 --> 00:00:27.130 on her shoulders, 10 00:00:27.130 --> 00:00:29.760 and she tries to run away from her sadness, 11 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:33.030 in a circus filled with dreams and nightmares 12 00:00:33.030 --> 00:00:35.140 and immersive experiences, 13 00:00:35.140 --> 00:00:37.890 and she thinks it's going to be the perfect escape. 14 00:00:37.890 --> 00:00:39.920 But the sadness that she carries with her, 15 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:42.260 isn't so easy to run away from. 16 00:00:42.260 --> 00:00:45.270 And when she ends up going into a nightmare tent, 17 00:00:45.270 --> 00:00:48.100 that contains the nightmare her brother used to have, 18 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:51.310 before he disappeared, at that point she realizes, 19 00:00:51.310 --> 00:00:54.230 if his nightmare is inside the circus, 20 00:00:54.230 --> 00:00:57.030 then her brother has been to the circus, too. 21 00:00:57.030 --> 00:01:00.550 And even more than that, he might never have left. 22 00:01:00.550 --> 00:01:02.490 At that point, her journey changes, 23 00:01:02.490 --> 00:01:04.720 and she ends up pursuing finding out 24 00:01:04.720 --> 00:01:07.870 if her brother is somehow still in Reverie's Land of Dreams. 25 00:01:07.870 --> 00:01:08.703 And if he is, 26 00:01:08.703 --> 00:01:11.460 if she can find a way to save him, and bring him home. 27 00:01:11.460 --> 00:01:12.293 And along the way, 28 00:01:12.293 --> 00:01:15.600 my main character learns that she is a lot braver, 29 00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:18.773 and a lot stronger than she thought she was, at the start. 30 00:01:23.600 --> 00:01:24.940 When I was teaching, 31 00:01:24.940 --> 00:01:27.300 I always paid attention to the kinds of books 32 00:01:27.300 --> 00:01:29.630 that my students were gravitating toward, 33 00:01:29.630 --> 00:01:31.840 and that got passed around the classroom, 34 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:34.050 and shared widely and discussed widely, 35 00:01:34.050 --> 00:01:35.560 outside of reading time. 36 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:37.870 And it was my goal, when I set out to write this story, 37 00:01:37.870 --> 00:01:40.740 to write the kind of book that would grab hold of a reader, 38 00:01:40.740 --> 00:01:45.020 and not let them go until the final page had been finished. 39 00:01:45.020 --> 00:01:47.960 My teaching experience also really informed 40 00:01:47.960 --> 00:01:50.530 the content of the story that I wrote. 41 00:01:50.530 --> 00:01:53.820 I knew very early on in my pursuit of publication, 42 00:01:53.820 --> 00:01:56.570 that I did not want to shy away from the harder, 43 00:01:56.570 --> 00:01:58.720 more difficult things in life. 44 00:01:58.720 --> 00:02:03.720 Our students deal with a lot, at a very young age sometimes, 45 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:07.670 and my story addresses the issue of divorce, 46 00:02:07.670 --> 00:02:09.940 and also of grief. 47 00:02:09.940 --> 00:02:12.880 It deals with those things in an ultimately hopeful 48 00:02:12.880 --> 00:02:14.400 and healing way, 49 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:17.710 but I wanted students to be able to read this book, 50 00:02:17.710 --> 00:02:22.710 and perhaps feel a bit less alone, or feel a bit comforted. 51 00:02:23.730 --> 00:02:27.100 Or just have the chance to walk alongside a journey, 52 00:02:27.100 --> 00:02:29.920 with a character that they can relate to, 53 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:32.530 and something that maybe isn't easy to talk about, 54 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:35.460 or that's been a burden on their own hearts. 55 00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:37.420 If I can take my experience as a teacher, 56 00:02:37.420 --> 00:02:40.300 and use it to write stories that make kids feel seen, 57 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:42.829 or heard, or that they aren't alone, 58 00:02:42.829 --> 00:02:45.780 then I feel like my stories will have accomplished 59 00:02:45.780 --> 00:02:47.343 what I set out for them to do. 60 00:02:52.010 --> 00:02:54.340 It was one of my favorite things as a teacher 61 00:02:54.340 --> 00:02:57.030 to pull in a mentor text from a story that we had loved, 62 00:02:57.030 --> 00:03:00.030 and I would be delighted to find any classrooms 63 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:01.440 that felt like they could do that, 64 00:03:01.440 --> 00:03:03.420 with "The Circus of Stolen Dreams", too. 65 00:03:03.420 --> 00:03:06.510 I found that the lessons that I use mentor texts for, 66 00:03:06.510 --> 00:03:08.330 really stuck with my students, 67 00:03:08.330 --> 00:03:12.200 and translated into a lasting change in their writing. 68 00:03:12.200 --> 00:03:14.060 And they really remembered that, 69 00:03:14.060 --> 00:03:17.220 Hey, this author that I loved did this thing, 70 00:03:17.220 --> 00:03:21.310 and now I, as a writer, do this thing, too. 71 00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:23.360 If I were going to use "The Circus of Stolen Dreams" 72 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:24.860 inside of my classroom, 73 00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:26.510 one of the things I would consider doing, 74 00:03:26.510 --> 00:03:28.240 is using it as a read-aloud. 75 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:29.870 I think it's a really gripping story, 76 00:03:29.870 --> 00:03:32.650 that would capture the imagination of the students 77 00:03:32.650 --> 00:03:36.150 who read it, but there are also a lot of layers to unpack, 78 00:03:36.150 --> 00:03:38.770 and a lot of things that you could dig into as a teacher, 79 00:03:38.770 --> 00:03:40.700 reading this out loud to a class. 80 00:03:40.700 --> 00:03:41.533 On my website, 81 00:03:41.533 --> 00:03:43.050 I have a list of discussion questions 82 00:03:43.050 --> 00:03:44.100 for the end of each chapter, 83 00:03:44.100 --> 00:03:46.250 that could be used to spark conversation. 84 00:03:46.250 --> 00:03:48.900 I would also consider using "The Circus of Stolen Dreams" 85 00:03:48.900 --> 00:03:51.460 as a book club for a group of students. 86 00:03:51.460 --> 00:03:54.800 I have book club discussion questions on my website, 87 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:57.480 that could be really great starting points for them, 88 00:03:57.480 --> 00:03:59.963 to dig into different aspects of the story. 89 00:04:04.830 --> 00:04:07.770 I would absolutely recommend pairing my story 90 00:04:07.770 --> 00:04:10.670 with either "Circus Mirandus" by Cassie Beasley, 91 00:04:10.670 --> 00:04:13.830 or, "The Night Gardener" by Jonathan Auxier. 92 00:04:13.830 --> 00:04:15.450 Both of those books are written 93 00:04:15.450 --> 00:04:17.390 by two of my favorite authors, 94 00:04:17.390 --> 00:04:19.630 and "Circus Mirandus" has the circus, 95 00:04:19.630 --> 00:04:22.960 and the mysterious magic that goes along with it, 96 00:04:22.960 --> 00:04:24.840 and "The Night Gardener" is wonderful 97 00:04:24.840 --> 00:04:26.720 for that creepy element, 98 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:30.440 but also a story that has a lot of heart, 99 00:04:30.440 --> 00:04:32.680 along with the scary parts. 100 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:35.320 And so those I think would be amazing companions 101 00:04:35.320 --> 00:04:36.273 for my story.