Gossamer is a short work of young adult fantasy by award-winning author Lois Lowry. The book seeks to tell the origin story of dreams by following a supernatural being called Littlest One, a fairy-like creature who, taking memories from common household objects, uses them to weave beautiful dreams. Though Littlest One is the protagonist of the story, the book also follows a few human characters – an old, lonely woman, her newly adopted foster son, John, and John's abusive father and immature, though well-meaning, mother.
Littlest One asks her mentor Fastidious questions about what kind of animal she is. Littlest One is a new Bestower, which means that she is assigned a family and is responsible for using their items to extract memories and create dreams. Fastidious is impatient with Littlest One's questions and her inability to focus. Littlest has been assigned to a lonely, older woman who lives alone in a large, two-story house. Fastidious and Littlest spend the first chapters of the book wandering through the house collecting memories, and then, Fastidious shows Littlest how to bestow a dream upon the sleeping old woman.
The lead manager of the Bestowers decides that Fastidious is not the best mentor for the easily distracted and curious Littlest One; instead, they assign her Thin Elderly, a soft-spoken and more patient, if stern, teacher. Thin Elderly gives Littlest some freedom to touch and gather memories, and the two create beautiful dreams together.
Soon after Littlest is assigned to the old woman’s house, she and Thin Elderly meet John –a young foster boy taken in by the old woman. The old woman is kind and patient with John, who is troubled. Through John, Littlest is introduced to the Sinisteeds – the bestowers of nightmares. John is a target for the Sinisteeds, who are essentially Bestowers gone rogue. It becomes the mission of Littlest and Thin Elderly to fight John's nightmares – and the Sinisteeds – by giving him beautifully woven dreams that can't be infiltrated by vicious nightmares.
Through John's nightmares and the gathered memories of the old woman, Littlest learns of the struggles John is having adapting to his new home. John is plagued by memories of his abusive father. His mother, who refuses to leave John's father, is loving but immature and unsure what to do to protect her son. John, who ended up in foster care, doesn't understand or trust the kindness of his new guardian or the safety of his new home. Though the old woman is patient with John, she is troubled by his nightmares as well – she worries about him adjusting and wonders how to comfort him because of his trauma.
As it turns out, Littlest is a special Bestower – she has immense skill because of her ability to empathize and understand the predicaments of humans. Thin Elderly, recognizing her abilities, trains her to become a stronger Bestower to fight the war with the Sinisteeds that he knows is on the horizon. The climax of the novel comes when the Sinisteeds unleash a flurry of nasty nightmares on John, and Littlest must combat them with her gentle touch, desperately seeking good memories to use to combat the horrible memories that John carries with him.
Though a work of fantasy, Lowry's novel has
realistic depth as it explores the complexities of trauma, dreams, family, and memory. Lowry makes an argument for patience and gentleness in this story about overcoming violence and abuse, traits which the old woman and Littlest One both embody. These two characters, his guardian and his translucent, unknown dream-fairy, become John's guides on his path to recovery.
Lois Lowry is the author of forty-five books for children and young adults, and is most noted for her two Newbery Award-winning novels,
The Giver and
Number the Stars. She has been a nominee three times for the Hans Christian Anderson Award, which is the highest honor given for lifetime achievement in children's literature, and has been a finalist twice for the same award. Lowry is known for her tactful writing about difficult topics, such as race, gender, death, illness, murder, and genocide. Her work is inspired in part by her own tragedy – her son Grey, a major in the Air Force, died suddenly in a fighter plane accident in 1995. Lowry didn't begin writing stories and books for children until later in her life, after she had already had children of her own. She has been nominated for and received dozens of awards for her work; her novel
The Giver was adapted into a feature-length film in 2014.