To Dream of Dancing: Desdemona's Dreams, Volume 1 - Hardcover

"Volume 1 of the "Desdemona's Dreams" series, To Dream of Dancing has the lavish color illustrations of a picturebook, yet its story is fairly extensive and detailed (60 pages), and suitable for young readers who are just about ready for their first chapter books. Desdemona is a young girl who dreams of becoming a dancer, perhaps a graceful ballerina. But the world around her is filled with endless demands that seek to slowly bleed away the creativity and dreams of children like her. The Mad Maestro, a dream-world metaphor turned shockingly real, imprisons Desdemona's dream of dancing and makes a dire challenge - if Desemona cannot finish the Maestro's musical masterpiece in an hour, then she will lose her dream forever! A wondrous allegory about holding fast to great expectations, To Dream of Dancing is highly recommended."--Midwest Book Review June, 2016 "Z.W. Mohr whimsically captures the imaginative possibilities of children uninhibited by the struggles of adulthood. Mohr's use of both prose and poetry helps establish a change in tone as we follow Desdemona between the physical and dream worlds." --Antigravity March, 2016 "A vibrant use of color is present throughout the story; from Desdemona's deep purple house to her teacher's striking green eyes, Porter illustrates Desdemona's travels through her dreams and back into the real world." --Antigravity March, 2016

A wonderful adventure linking dreams with reality, and filled beautiful images. To Dream of Dancing is Alice in Wonderland meets The Sandman, and will be sure to spark the imagination in children and adults alike.

-Outstanding Children's Book of the Year from the 2016 IAN Awards  

-Midwest Book Review June, 2016
"Suitable for young readers who are just about ready for their first chapter books. A wondrous allegory about holding fast to great expectations, To Dream of Dancing is highly recommended."

-Antigravity Magazine March, 2016                                                                                                                                              "A vibrant coming-of-age tale about a little girl refusing to abandon her imagination." 

-Andy Reynolds, Author of Axeboy's Blues and Spectacle of the Extension                                                                 "What a wonderful, adventurous first volume to what is sure to be an epic, dream-filled string of tales!"

Storyline

Upon awakening from a long night filled with a nightmare where her dream of dancing, personified by a ballerina, has been captured, Desdemona confides in Teddy(her living teddy bear, friend)and then has to make her way to Grayson Drab Elementary School. At school Desdemona is ostracized for being a daydreamer and receives no solace on the playground or in the classroom with her strict teacher Ms. Kaputski. It’s in the classroom where she fades off again into the dream world and once again encounters the Maestro from her nightmare.

As she faces off against the mad Maestro, that has captured Desdemona’s dream of dancing, the grave importance of her task becomes very real. If her dream stays his prisoner, then Desdemona will never want to dance again, and that isn’t something she’s about to let happen. The Maestro challenges Desdemona to help find a suitable ending to his masterpiece, if she can then he will free the ballerina, but if she can't then Desdemona must stay as his captive as well.

If you enjoyed Lewis Carroll's, Alice in Wonderland, The Brother's Grimm fairy tales, or Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, then this is a series for you and your children to thoroughly enjoy. 

WHAT MAKES THE DESDEMONA'S DREAMS SERIES DIFFERENT FROM OTHER CHILDREN'S BOOKS?

This series is beautifully put together in a hardback format, making it even more collectible. Where most children's picture books tend to be 500-1000 words of story and 28-32 pages, this series is 60 or more pages in each book, with over 4,000 words of story in volume 1, that doubles in volume 2, and will increase with each volume. The creators of the series want the books to evolve with their readers. 

They offer free digital download audiobooks (set to music with effects, in a read-along style for children not quite at the reading level yet) for every reader that signs up for the Desdemona's Dreams Newsletter on their website https://desdemonasdreams.com/