Dream Country, Hardcover

Contributor(s):

• Author: Shannon Gibney

The heartbreaking story of five generations of young people from a single African-and-American family pursuing an elusive dream of freedom.

"Gut wrenching and incredible."-- Sabaa Tahir #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes

"This novel is a remarkable achievement."--Kelly Barnhill, New York Times bestselling author and Newbery medalist

"Beautifully epic."--Ibi Zoboi, author American Street and National Book Award finalist

Dream Country begins in suburban Minneapolis at the moment when seventeen-year-old Kollie Flomo begins to crack under the strain of his life as a Liberian refugee. He's exhausted by being at once too black and not black enough for his African American peers and worn down by the expectations of his own Liberian family and community. When his frustration finally spills into violence and his parents send him back to Monrovia to reform school, the story shifts. Like Kollie, readers travel back to Liberia, but also back in time, to the early twentieth century and the point of view of Togar Somah, an eighteen-year-old indigenous Liberian on the run from government militias that would force him to work the plantations of the Congo people, descendants of the African American slaves who colonized Liberia almost a century earlier. When Togar's section draws to a shocking close, the novel jumps again, back to America in 1827, to the children of Yasmine Wright, who leave a Virginia plantation with their mother for Liberia, where they're promised freedom and a chance at self-determination by the American Colonization Society. The Wrights begin their section by fleeing the whip and by its close, they are then the ones who wield it. With each new section, the novel uncovers fresh hope and resonating heartbreak, all based on historical fact.

In Dream Country, Shannon Gibney spins a riveting tale of the nightmarish spiral of death and exile connecting America and Africa, and of how one determined young dreamer tries to break free and gain control of her destiny.
 
Review citations

• School Library Journal / Best Of The Best/Highly Recommended - pg. 73 - 08/01/2018
• School Library Journal / Exceptional Presentation - pg. 73 - 08/01/2018
• School Library Journal / Book Of Special Distinction - pg. 73 - 08/01/2018
• School Library Journal / Top 15 Book Of The Year - pg. 73 - 08/01/2018
• School Library Journal / Highly Recommended - pg. 73 - 08/01/2018
• Kirkus Reviews / Best Of The Best/Highly Recommended - pg. 206 - 08/15/2018
• Kirkus Reviews / Exceptional Presentation - pg. 206 - 08/15/2018
• Kirkus Reviews / Book Of Special Distinction - pg. 206 - 08/15/2018
• Kirkus Reviews / Top 15 Book Of The Year - pg. 206 - 08/15/2018
• Kirkus Reviews / Highly Recommended - pg. 206 - 08/15/2018
• Horn Book Magazine - pg. 81 - 09/01/2018
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks / Best Of The Best/Highly Recommended - 09/01/2018
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks / Exceptional Presentation - 09/01/2018
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks / Book Of Special Distinction - 09/01/2018
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks / Top 15 Book Of The Year - 09/01/2018
• Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks / Highly Recommended - 09/01/2018
• Booklist / Best Of The Best/Highly Recommended - pg. 107 - 09/01/2018
• Booklist / Exceptional Presentation - pg. 107 - 09/01/2018
• Booklist / Book Of Special Distinction - pg. 107 - 09/01/2018
• Booklist / Top 15 Book Of The Year - pg. 107 - 09/01/2018
• Booklist / Highly Recommended - pg. 107 - 09/01/2018
• Publishers Weekly / Best Of The Best/Highly Recommended - 10/01/2018
• Publishers Weekly / Exceptional Presentation - 10/01/2018
• Publishers Weekly / Book Of Special Distinction - 10/01/2018
• Publishers Weekly / Top 15 Book Of The Year - 10/01/2018
• Publishers Weekly / Highly Recommended - 10/01/2018
• Voice of Youth Advocates / Below Average - 10/01/2018
• Voice of Youth Advocates / Excellent - 10/01/2018
• Voice of Youth Advocates / Recommended - Better Than Most - 10/01/2018