Dreaming by starlight by Siobhan Curham

Jazz has had to relocate from the sun and surf of coastal Australia to beachside Brighton in the UK. She is not happy to leave behind her friends and the surfing culture that she loves because of her father’s career move, and now she has to attend a posh new school where everyone treats her like a lemon.  If it wasn’t for her cousin Amber (from the original Moonlight Dreamers) and the advice she gives (with the help of Oscar Wilde) she would be forever resentful, lonely and painfully isolated. Making new friends requires her to be proactive, and some Oscar Wilde wisdom connects her to some new potential friends all with the desire to experience more. Slowly the new Moonlight Dreamers discover new directions and new options in their lives and weave together in ways they never thought possible. Jazz’ impetus has forged a new community that provides benefits beyond her own distress, and gives them all an opportunity to look beyond their own problems.

This is a story of friendship and overcoming major and minor dilemmas by working together and daring to dream. It travels into the lives of the young teens looking at their challenges within their families and their relationships, and giving them a chance to see things differently. One of the girls is battling a major health-scare diagnosis, another has to determine whether her current friends are really healthy for her, another has a heart for animals, and Jazz is experiencing the distress of unwanted disconnection from her friends and favoured environment. The story unfolds fairly quickly with some simple twists along the way. It has heart and moments of joy as the girls discover their new connection and the hope of looking at life differently. As Oscar Wilde says, ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’

Themes: Friendship, Dreams, Loneliness, Illness, Bullying.

Carolyn Hull