Dream Hop

by Julia Durango

While dreaming of a far away land filled with castles and fairies, a young boy's sweet dream turns on him and soon he is being chased by knights, held hostage by pirates, and transported to his classroom where he is left standing in front of all his friends with no pants.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2005

Reviews

[smetchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wonderful rhyming. Cute story. Great illustrations with tons of little surprises hidden on each page. Here's the rub: It's a book about how to "hop" out of a dream when it gets too scary which ends with the kid waking up in his own room, heaving a sigh of relief, then realizing there's a big scary monster under the bed! The last page is this kid cowering under the covers looking frightened to death while a big toothy grin glows from under the bed! I read it for the first time with my 5-year-old and she snatched it from me and flipped the last page over and back several times then looked at me like" "WTF?! That's the end?!?!"

Not cool, Julia Durango. Not cool.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flowing rhymes with a hook that my four year old was able to yell at the end of each page with me. Illustrations were average. Not bad to pick up at the library, but not one to purchase.

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrible children's book. The premise is that a child is having a nightmare and to escape he "dream hops" into a new dream. Fine so far, in fact I think it's a cool idea. But the problem is that the poor kid never hops into a good dream. Each new dream he has is just as bad, if not worse, as the last. Then when he finally wakes up at the end, shivering with fear, there's a goddamned monster under his bed. It's really strange because on the back flap the author states she got the idea for the book when her young son asked if she had bad dreams and "hopped" into good ones. It just seems really sadistic of the author to keep screwing with her young protagonist like that when the character is based on her own child.

[Mrs. Gabrielle Zastrow's · Rating 5 out of 5]

By Trevor and Delbert

What made this book so good was that it had a lot of funny stuff in it, like the monsters. This book is about a guy and his teddy bear. When he is asleep, he falls into different nightmares. One is when they are in the Rainforest and the guy on the cover with the red hair is in it. Next, he falls into a castle that is really big. When you flip the page, there is a knight attacking, so they had to prepare for battle. Then they went into the sea because a monsterpus pulled him under water. After that, he got onto a ship and there were pirates on it. Then, he went into a witch's castle and saw a witch! Then he came to his school and he forgot his pants! This had a joke ending!

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 6 year old son and I borrowed this book from the library. He loves it. The book is supposed to be about how to escape nightmares by saying the words Dream Hop. The illustrations are fun and silly. The way the book is written makes it just plain fun to read out loud. It's one of those books that my son wants to read over and over again.

[Erma Talamante · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happens when you start to have a bad dream? Just Dream Hop, and head on to the next dream! Written in rhyme with colorful, busy pictures, this book is good for fearful children to remember that they are in control.

[Partridge Public]

Durango, Julia

[Shana Galbraith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a really cute, imaginative story, but the ending does nothing to reassure kids, so don't read before bedtime!

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scary ending -- little boy alone in his room with a monster crawling out from under the bed

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kids really enjoyed this one. Another rhyming book that is fun to read aloud. This will be a recurring bedtime story for sure!

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked it until the ending.