Dare to Daydream

Words with Wings by Nikki Grimes (Wordsong) $15.95

Ages 8 and up

“How did I feel when called out for daydreaming?” asked Nikki Grimes after I had put the question to her.  “Caught. Exposed. Annoyed. For me, daydreaming was a private joy, one I rarely shared, so I hated when anyone caught me at it, or interrupted a daydream in progress.”

It’s no wonder Grimes has created such a vivid portrayal of a child caught up in daydreams in Words with Wings. This middle grade novel in poetry captures the daughter of a dreamer making her own dreams as she “plucked out the word hush/and thought about/the whisper of wind/rustling through leaves….” It captures the torment of a child considered weird by schoolmates who don’t understand how her imagination can fly.

I was a daydreamer just like Grimes and like Gabby. I would watch a steady stream of stories fly past my own school windows. By fourth grade, I discovered it was easier to rub poison ivy on my legs so that I’d be sent home with a rash than it was to have teachers call me “flighty” and tell me I wasn’t going to learn if I couldn’t focus. There was no saving me once I learned how to sneak a novel inside my math book by sixth grade. I even had a teacher tell me I was hopeless when I said I dreamed of growing up to be a writer so that I could live inside my daydreams. Gabby isn’t hopeless and she finds her imaginative wandering preserved through a teacher who understands her need to dream. This teacher with the gift of creative insight turns Gabby’s life, and the imaginative lives of all the students inside his classroom, into cherished daydream time when he provides daydream times for all. How fortunate that Gabby is allowed to embrace her gift.

This lovely book brings home the reality that teachers should remain aware that their rooms are filled with potential artists and writers, designers and engineers who get caught in their own daydreaming. Rather than make them stand out as weird, or foolish, rather than making them lose their dreams, we can encourage them.   Although Grimes found herself hiding her aspirations as a child, she admits, “I had no desire to be laughed at, more than I already was, for daring to have high aspirations. I wasn’t about to give up those aspirations, though. Daydreams were where I nurtured them.”

How fortunate for all of us that Nikki Grimes embraced her own daydreams to give us her gift of poetry and story.