Do You Dream? Are they pleasant or are they nightmares? In The Girl Who Could Not Dream, Sophie's family are dream merchants. Using dream catchers, they trap people's dreams and use a machine to turn them into liquid. They can then sell them and the buyer drinks the dream and then it becomes theirs. An unusual concept for sure. Sophie doesn't have her own dreams, but can drink a dream and then characters (monsters, unicorns etc.) can be brought out of the dream into the world. Sophie has a pet Monster that helps her in her upcoming quest. She brings dreamcatchers to school to help friends and classmates get rid of their own nightmares and through this process actually puts them in danger. Returning home from school one day, she finds her parents are missing. One of her friends, Ethan, is attacked by a "gray creature" at school, and two of the girls she gave dream catchers to, are missing. She is sure it has something to do with Mr. Nightmare, a buyer who had visited the store a couple of days earlier. With Monster and Ethan in tow, she calls forth Ninja Bunnies and a glittery unicorn to help find her parents and save the missing girls. Can they actually defeat the evil characters?

This is a great middlegrade story with magic, adventure, fantasy, fun characters and a wonderful cupcake-lovin’, tentacled, snarky, loyal monster. Selling Dreams is illegal, so Sophie's family has to run their business in secret. Because of this, she is a loner, so when I say friend, it is really an acquaintance. Sophie is brave and smart, so she is able to use these skills to help in her quest. Ethan is the new kid at school and is athletic, so everyone likes him. They don't know that he has nightmares and that his parents are so busy, he is often left alone. When he hooks up with Sophie, he has no intentions of going home and giving up. The story gets a bit scary when Sophie finds out what is going on, but it lightens up when she calls the glitter unicorn and pink ninja bunnies into the living world to help her. This is a fun story that I think MG readers will enjoy. A great addition to school, public and family libraries.