This book is about a little Chippewa girl named, Kimmy, who is staying with her grandparents while her parents are away. When her parents leave, it reminds her of the bad dreams she has been having. Grandmother comforts Kimmy by telling her about the legend of the dreamcatcher and the power it holds. She shows Kimmy a dreamcatcher and decides to make one with her. Kimmy is excited! She sleeps peacefully with happy dreams. This book also gives instructions on how to make a dreamcatcher. I enjoyed this book due to the fact that it provided a traditional belief to comfort Kimmy's fear of bad dreams, family ties, and legends that are continued to be passed through generations. ( )

I liked this book for two reasons. First, I liked the character development. In the fiction literature, Grandmother’s Dreamcatcher, a young Native American girl named Kimmy, visits her grandmother. For some time now, Kimmy has been having bad dreams at night. Kimmy’s grandmother teaches her how to make a dreamcatcher. She also learns about how the dreamcatcher came about in their cultural. Kimmy changes from being a child who is scared when she has nightmares and needs her mother. While spending time with her grandmother, she learns about her cultural while learning how to have happy and peaceful dreams. Second, I also liked the illustrations. The illustrator used pale and dull colors on each page. Seeing these colors made me think of Native American tribes and how their environment solemnly has bright colors. The illustrator also enlarged illustration indicating the importance of something. For example, when the grandmother is telling Kimmy about the dreamcatcher, the spider who is believed to catch the bad dreams, takes up most of the page. The main message of the story is the special bond between a grandchild and a grandmother. Grandmothers can teach us skills or lessons we may not learn from our parents. ( )

Summary: A young girl goes to visit her Chippewa Native American grandmother while her parents search for a new home in Chicago. She begins having bad dreams while her parents are gone. Her grandmother shows her how to make a dreamcatcher and tells her the story of her childhood. Doing activities with her grandmother and the dreamcatcher makes her stay wonderful.

Personal Summary: I loved this story and it made me think of an activity we did with dreamcatchers after a Native American program at my elementary school. I do think this is for an older set of kids. It might be a little over the heads of the 4-6 year old students.

Classroom Extension:

1. Make a dreamcatcher

2. Explore Native American culture and pinpoint Native American lands on an Oklahoma state map.

Grandmother's Dreamcatcher is about a girl who is staying with her Native American grandmother. Her parents are looking for a new house in Chicago, so Kimmy stays with her grandmother. She has bad dreams at night, so her grandmother tells her she needs dreamcatcher. As they make it together, Kimmy's grandmother tells her the story about dreamcatchers. They protect you while you sleep and catch any bad dreams. Kimmy's new dreamcatcher works and they decide to make one for her mom and dad to put in her new house. Her parents love it and the picture she drew of her whole family too. In the beginning, Kimmy is sad to see her parents leave and is afraid to fall asleep because of her bad dreams. With the help of her grandmother and the dreamcatcher, Kimmy overcomes her fears. ( )

Kimmy, a Native American girl, is staying with her grandmother for a week while her parents go ahead to where her father will be starting a new job. With all the changes, Kimmy starts having bad dreams. Her grandmother makes her a dreamcatcher out of a bent twig, beads, feathers and leather strips and tells her how "their people" started making them. The tale she tells about a spider web catching a child's bad dream goes back generations in their culture. The gift her grandmother gave her was more than a dreamcatcher - it was a legacy of family history and belonging to "her Chippewa people".

I enjoyed this book since I'm from New Mexico and dreamcatchers are everywhere. It was fun to read about the love between the grandmother and Kimmy and how she handed down something special to her.

In class, it would be easy to make dreamcatchers to hang from the classroom ceiling.

We could read more about the Chippewa people. ( )