THE DREAM STEALER

by Gregory Maguire ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1983

A curious juggling of four Russian legends--the Firebird, Vasilissa the Beautiful, the Blood Prince (a wolf), and Baba Yaga--in a story overpopulated with eccentrics and undermined by detail. Ten-year-old Pasha and nine-year-old Lisette are the children who overhear the Miersk elders talking (is there a Blood Prince? who was Vasilissa the Beautiful?), see the Firebird, and set out on a quest for answers from Baba Yaga. The Blood Prince, she explains, will destroy the village in search of something pure--the dreams of children--but the significance of that idea, its larger potential, is not the issue; instead, the village packs up--comically, on box cars--and tries to avoid its fate. By the end, the children have faced danger, along with the rest of the village, a number of times, but it's hard to stay involved in their case: the pace is frantic as the four legends compete for time, and the solution is mechanical: Pasha's cow stuns the wolf until a long-buried magical doll can finish him off. Many images will appeal to kids--Baba Yaga's house totters around on chicken legs-but the story itself is busy and disappointing in its resolution.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION