Hartinger (Grand & Humble
) deftly moves into the realm of fantasy in his latest outing. Eleven-year-old Julie is caught in between her parents. Her mother, a consummate homemaker, and her television producer father constantly use Julie as a tool to jibe at each other, and the stress spills over into Julie's dreams. She is troubled by increasingly violent nightmares—having to avoid giant vacuum cleaners or being trussed up like a pig for her parents' consumption. One night while asleep, she stumbles into the land of Slumberia and into a film studio, where her dreams are filmed nightly. She embarks on a quest to meet the executives who create and control her dreams, befriending a bounty of oddball characters—a shark turned lawyer and a mustachioed butterfly, among others—along the way. But Vivian, the villainous actress who portrays Julie in her nightmares, travels through the rift that brought Julie to Slumberia. Vivian ingratiates herself into the girl's life, scoring a role on Julie's father's television show and befriending the popular crowd at school, much to Julie's horror. As Julie restores order within her own head, the physical landscape around her is renewed, lending an air of allegory to the tale. Hartinger's winning pairing of a sincere message with hyperbolic humor should resonate with readers. Ages 8-up. (May)
