My First Book Review ~ Alphabet of Dreams

Hey everyone! Yup, it's me again, Megan! I stayed up until 10:00PM last night to finish a really impressive book. It is called Alphabet of Dreams, by Susan Fletcher, who is also the author of some other books, like Shadow Spinner and Walk Across the Sea. This book is good for people who like adventure, and tie-ins to history.

This book is about a girl named Mitra and her younger brother named Babak, who are beggars in the city of Rhagae. However, Mitra and Babak are of royal blood! Their father plotted to kill the king, but King Phraates killed Mitra's father first. Mitra must now disguise herself as a boy to help her brother survive in the cities, where girls and women usually stay home. But there is something different about Babak. If he sleeps with someone's possession, he can dream the person's dreams. Mitra wants to use this power to locate her kinsmen in Palmyra.

They join a caravan, where they meet a Magus (plural: Magi, if that makes sense) named Melchior. Babak must now dream for Melchior and do everything he tells him to do. As they traverse the desert, they meet caravans with other Magi, named Caspar (or Gaspar) and Balthazaar. (If this helps, the Magi were also known as Wise Men. "Hmmm... where have I heard THAT before?")

The Magi continued across the desert, barely surviving on their measly supplies. As they continue, Mitra and Balthazaar realize that if they force Babak to dream much more, terrible things would happen. When they realize this, they confront Melchior about Babak, but their concerns fall on deaf ears. When they finally cross the desert, the caravans stop in Bethlehem, where the Magi finally understand who the "new king" is.

As the story comes to a close, Balthazaar tells Mitra that her family has been killed by King Phraates, so Mitra and Babak must find another home. Mitra decides that she and Babak will stay in Bethlehem, and a family takes them in. A few years later, Mitra's new father tells her that a caravan has come around asking for her. To her amazement, her old friends from the Magi caravans have come back, looking for her. They brought another man, whom Mitra had thought was handsome. The man asked for her hand in marriage, and the book ends with her and Babak living with her newly-wed husband.

I enjoyed this book because it interacted with all the characters, had lots of action, and talks about interesting subjects, such as growing up and the power of dreams. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys tackling the longer stories and who enjoy historic tie-ins, because it is the birth of Jesus, from the Magi's point of view. This is why I would recommend this book to fiction/historic readers.