Daydreamer

An 11-year-old’s imagination offers escape in Cameron’s creative and chaotic debut, set in 1986 in an unidentified city. Charles Housen’s mother calls him lazy, his teachers say he doesn’t listen, and his babysitter insists he’s “too stupid to learn,” but in truth, whenever Charles tries to read, the words just “squiggle and twist.” When that happens, or when kids torment him, Charles retreats to an imaginary sanctuary filled with friends he’s drawn and creatures described by Mr. Miles, his apartment building’s superintendent. Mr. Miles claims he’s secretly a dragon in human form, which is how he knows that Charles’s new neighbors, Mr. Calixte and son Will, are actually trolls whom Charles should avoid. But when Charles overhears Will being abused by his father (“The daddy’s hitting the boy!”), he can’t help but try to save him, like the hero he is in his mind. Charles’s first-person-present narration overlays fantasy and reality, transforming bullies into ogres and gang members into goblins; while this approach heightens drama, it also occasionally obscures plot and saps momentum. Still, in employing compassionate prose, Cameron illustrates the transformative power of storytelling to deliver a kindhearted tale. The cast is ethnically diverse. Ages 10–up. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Aug.)

Correction: A previous version of this review misstated a character name.