Title: Dreamland What is your book’s genre? Write it here: Realistic Fiction What is it? In this novel, the main character is a high school student who is hiding the ugly truth about her relationship with her boyfriend, causing her to grow distant from everyone in her life who cares about her. Example: Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks Example: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Example: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen Attribute: The story is set in the real world. Attribute: The events in the story could actually happen. (The reader thinks the story is believable.) Attribute: The characters seem believable.

Attribute: The story is set in the real world. “I’d been back in school for about a week when my best friend, Rina, finally convinced me to try out for cheerleading”(27 ). “We had a fat plastic Santa standing by the front steps, white lights strung in the tree by the walk, and a row of tiny reindeer mounted on the roof of the garage”(156). “I’d heard of Evergreen Care Center before. Cass and I had always made fun of the stupid ads they ran on TV, featuring some dragged out women with a limp perm and big, painted-on circles under her eyes, downing vodka and sobbing uncontrollably. We can’t heal you at Evergreen, the very somber voiceover said. But we can help you to heal yourself”(222).

Attribute: The events in the story could actually happen. “Whenever I see my father in my mind, he is wearing a tie. They were the only gifts Cass and I ever gave him for his birthday, Christmas, and Father’s Day, year after year”(26). “Caitlin?” I blinked, opening my eyes. My English lit teacher, Mr. Lensing, was standing over me, a well- worn copy of T.S. Eliot’s collected poems in his hand. All around us the room was quiet and I could feel everyone watching me. “Yes?” “Did you hear the question?” He shifted the book to his other hand, then lifted his glasses off his head and put them on while flipping a few pages with his fingers. “I asked you about the symbolism of the mermaids in Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ “(162). “I’d been at Evergreen less than a month when my mother brought me a pile of mail from home. A flier about the SATs, a stack of homework assignments from school, a catalog from a cheerleading supply company, trying to sell me barrettes with my school colors. And, at the bottom, two letters. One from Corinna, one from Cass”(234).

Attribute: The characters in the story seem believable. “‘Rogerson Biscoe!’” she called out. She was smiling but her voice sounded angry, irritated, and the contrast was strange. Rogerson pulled me close to him, locking his fingers tighter into mine. ‘Where have you been?’ ‘Mom,’ Rogerson said. ‘You were supposed to be here to meet and greet,” she scolded him between clenched teeth-still smiling-as we got closer”(81). “But what I liked most about Corinna was that she liked me. She was pretty, smart, and funny but I didn’t feel like I faded out when I was with her, like I always had with Rina and Cass. I loved her easygoing manner, hanging on every one of her horror stories about waitressing at Applebee’s and her own wild high school years. She seemed to have the perfect life to me: independent, fun job, living with a man who loved her in their tiny, funky farmhouse. I could see me and Rogerson like that, someday”(122). “‘I’ll be back Wednesday,' my mother told me, pulling me close to her chest. She was still handling me so gingerly, as if I was a piece of china already cracked and a fingertip’s weight could break me completely. ‘I’ll bring your blue sweater and some nice shams for this bed. Okay?’ I nodded. My father hugged me and kissed the top of my head, saying, ‘Hang in there, kiddo. You’re a good girl’”(223).

 In Dreamland, Sarah Dessen created the character, Caitlin, a high school student who does normal activities that anyone in high school could do in real life. This makes the story believable. Caitlin faces many conflicts with her parents, her friends, and her boyfriend that many teenagers face daily. For example, she felt neglected by her parents when they seemed to only be concerned about her sister and her sister’s issues. She also struggled with a controlling boyfriend who made her relationship with her best friend difficult and caused her grades to drop in school.