[.ca] Faber Childrens Classics Marianne Dreams (ISBN 0571202128)

Marianne Dreams:
I really liked this book. What I couldnt understand was what was wrong with Marianne? I indeed did find it a little scary but more eerie when reading at night. I loved reading it from front to back and I have read it again the same old plot not getting old.

Captivating and Dark:
I stumbled over the movie, "Paperhouse" in a horror section in a video store. I fell in love with the movie and then I was deteremined to find the book it was based on. The book was nowhere locally and not online either. Not less than a year later (Dec of '93) I got the opportunity to go to England and while there, I searched book stores in London in the pouring rain dragging my reletives around. We got soaked in the rain but I found it in only a couple of hours. I was very surprised that this book was even considered a children's novel. I found it VERY dark and eerie. Don't know of many children who would really get into this book. I would recommend it to older teens and adults. I actually found the book to be darker and eerier than the movie. If you can get your hands on this book, it is worth every penny!

Atmospheric and Gothic:
Marianne is a bedridden invalid and when she draws a house with a pencil found in her grandmother's sewing basket she finds herself in the drawing whenever she sleeps. In this dream world she meets a lonely boy, also an invalid, and together they become very frightened as the dreams become more sinister. This was a very atmospheric story, both dark and gloomy. There are some quite frightening scenes that I imagine would have scared me as a child. I really enjoyed the plot and found it a very unique premise but at only 204 pages it wasn't developed enough. I'd recommend this if you enjoy British children's books from this era such as Phillipa Pearce or Lucy M. Boston.

A Timeless Classic of a Book:
Catherine Storr wrote this book in 1958 and amazingly it is as good a read now as it probably was then. A little girl Marianne is confined to bed after a serious illness and to wile away time she takes to drawing with a pencil she finds in what used to be her Great-Grandmother's workbasket. To her surprise she dreams about her drawings and they come to life in an extra-ordinary way that she struggles to understand. Jumping between the real world and that of her dreams Marianne slowly becomes conscious that world she is creating is making itself felt in the waking world and affecting not only herself but another sick child called Mark who she has never met but who is fast becoming an important part of her life. This is a surprisingly suspenseful book, with Marianne a tender ten-year-old acquiring almost survivalist skills in a bid to avoid the terrible stones she drew in fit of pique when angry with Mark. Realizing that Mark is in danger she sets out to save him, and aided only by trusty pencil and sketchpad, she ventures forth with Mark from the confines of the magically drawn house to a tower and finally to the safety of the sea. Adults and older children alike will enjoy this book, which puts modern children's classics to shame.

A Bit Old-Fashioned:
And a bit odd too. Parts of the story that are supposed to be scary just end up being mearly curious. I mean I would not be scared by a boulder with an eye. Nor would I constantly eat sausages, like Marianne and Mark do. And they are particulary fond of the word "beastly". Every second sentence contains this word. I won't go into detail about the story as the other reviews provide enough info but I will say that the book differs from the film (Paperhouse, in which Marianne becomes Anna Madden) greatly. It doesn't feel as menacing nor does Marianne have the same kind of cockiness and early-adulthood intelligence she has in the film. Instead, she's a year younger and seems more childlike. The story of Marianne's absent dad and having him appear in her dreams as a madman is not here either. The evil forces take the form of monolithical stones with eyes. And the stones chase Marianne and Mark?! Very weird indeed, I'm not quite sure how the physics of that works tho. It's probably all subtextual. But I can't figure it out. The ending is also completely different from the film too. I wish this book was darker and had a bit more evil in it. The boulders with eyes just don't do it for me. It didn't feel threatening at all. Althogether this a bit of a disappointment. It's not fully engaging or mysterious and seems too tame. I can't figure out what audience Catherine Storr was writing for but it seems a little unmagical for kids and a too tame for adults. Maybe it was different back in 1958 tho.