The Great Good Thing

The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley
Publisher: Scholastic
Copyright: 2001
Number of Pages: 216
Age: 12+
Genre: Fantasy

Summary:
In the story of The Great Good Thing, the main character Sylvie is a character in a book. During the story the reader goes to bed and as she fell asleep the book's story started to burn. Once the books story started to burn the characters from the book had to go into the dream of the reader named Clair. Once they were in the head for a while Clair started to get old, so the characters needed to move to Clair's daughters dream, Lily. Through the book the story is being told through Clair's mind. When it comes time to move to anothers dream Sylvie is the only one that makes it through to Lily's mind. Once Sylvie is in Lily's mind she tells her the story and has her write it down. Once the story is written and published Sylvie was able to transfer down into her story. The characters in the newly written book are different from the original because every one imagines characters differently, but Sylvie was able to live on and continue her story.
My reaction
I enjoyed this book but it was definately more complicated of a story for a child to follow. I think that it was great because it was original and the characters were orginial as well. It was a refreshing story line.
Who might benefit from this book?
I think that it is meant for an older reader because it is layered with different ideas through the book. I think that if the reader is old enough and likes that fantasy type then they could enjoy it. However, some readers might lose interest quickly because of the complex story line.
What problems might this book cause?
The reader that reads this should be and would be old enough to know that characters from books can't literally jump into your head, so I don't think that there would be a problem.