Once upon a time a boy was born.
He laughed. He kicked.
He grew.
He wondered, and had many dreams
A picture book inspired by a mother’s anguish over her son’s ice addiction, The Dream Peddler is a story designed to start a conversation with older readers that dreams sold to us falsely are not always as they seem.
Told in folktale format, we meet boy who lives with his family. Time goes on and he grows up and leaves home with a heart full of dreams.
Until he meets the Dream Peddler who entices him to try a different dream which in turn leads to him to not only forget what his original dreams were but also to develop an addiction.
This story is simple yet deep. It can be read on so many levels. Young readers will grasp at the idea of chasing dreams and becoming addicted to something so much that we forget who we are. Older readers will start to see the connection to drugs and how life with them can be nothing but broken hopes and dreams.
Addiction to drugs is too real and too many young people use these drugs either daily or recreationally. Children need to know what the side effects of drugs are before they start to try them out. They need to know who is giving it to them and consider if they really need them.
This book does focus on the illegal drug ‘ice’ but with a growing world there are so many other ways we can become disjointed from our world and addicted to things that take our lives away.
The Dream Peddler is a great book to read to young people so that they can see how important family, friends and following your hopes and dreams are. One off highs and addictions only ruin lives and it is something we need to address more fiercely.
In the classroom
This book can be used within PD lessons on Drugs
Literacy
You can look at the style of folk tales and fables in this story – how a simple story can send us such a strong message without telling us what to do.
Visual literacy
Look at how the following have been represented: Loss of direction in life, drugs, drug seller, anger, anguish, addiction, realisation
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Read more here: http://www.dirtlanepress.com/press
