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Authors:  Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler

ISBN: 978-525-47802-7

Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler put the “zip” in zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Teen identity crisis against a backdrop of fairy tales and make-believe is what we get in Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler’s newest young adult novel, Dream Factory, about teenagers who take temporary jobs at Disney World when the character actors go on strike.  But the book isn’t about disillusion; it doesn’t use the Disney World setting as an ironic contrast to teen angst.  It stays more innocent than that.  Nor does it go the opposite direction into familiar thematic formula—a villain, a hero, and a predictable ending.  Barkley and Hepler don’t need to rely on this format.  They give us an entertaining summer fling book in which, instead of fighting “bad guys,” their characters are dealing with the more personal trouble of “finding themselves.”  The sunny Disney World backdrop is just that: a fun backdrop, and it helps guide the story’s theme of following one’s dreams.

The point of view flips each chapter between two aimless teens, Luke and Ella.  Luke doesn’t want to follow his dad into the world of corporate careers and grown-up haircuts.  For now, he’s happy dressing up as Dale (you know, the chipmunk) and playing make-believe; but Cassie, an ambitious beauty and his counterpart—Chip—can’t understand why he avoids a perfectly packaged future.  They become a couple, but it becomes clear that his true counterpart is Ella, the only one who seems to get him.  They joke and share quirky ruminations about life.  But since Luke can’t seem to make up his mind about anything, he dallies between the two girls.  His conflicting feelings between Ella and Cassie are real, and I like that true-to-life aspect.  I didn’t get as much honest realness from Emma, who recently lost her brother to a car crash.  We get her skepticism on the happily-ever-after tagline, but the book glosses over her feelings.  When she starts to cry, the scene cuts away; we’re not taken into her moments of grief.

All the better for keeping an upbeat feel to the story.  Every teen in the book spews witty dialogue smoothly and readily, and the rhythm of the narrative is as light and jaunty as a horse-drawn carriage on its way to a ball.  My favorite supporting character is Mark, a good-hearted, sincere Disney devotee who is as princely as the Prince Charming character it is his job to play, opposite Ella’s forlorn Cinderella.

I like that the story’s main conflicts are internal; Luke and Ella wrestle with themselves and their choices. There are some inflated, abstract analogies throughout the book when these two get introspective.  Life is like a snow globe?  I don’t know.  But I enjoyed the book all the same.  At the end I was expecting Luke and Ella to discover what it is they want to do with their lives, but no such convenient ending.  We don’t get to go back with them to the real world.  Why would we want to? 

            The above review was contributed by Sonie Reppe.