Marianne dreams cover

Marianne dreams

by Catherine Storr

From annabookbel dot net: "Marianne is confined to bed with an illness that will take several months to recuperate from. She starts to draw to pass the time, using an old pencil she found in her Grannie’s workbox. She draws a house with a garden and a fence around it. That night, she dreams and she is at the house she drew – but she can’t get in – there’s no door handle. Meanwhile Marianne is getting a little better, and starts lessons with Miss Chesterfield who is also teaching a boy called Mark who has had polio. Marianne returns to her drawing, adds a door handle, and a boy at the upstairs window. She dreams again and the house appears, but there are no stairs in the house, so she can’t get up to the boy. Rectifying this she meets the boy in the upstairs room when she dreams. He’s ill and can’t use his legs properly. Things start to take on a creepy turn when the real-life Mark outdoes Marianne with a birthday present for their teacher. She imprisons him in her drawing and tries to scribble him out. But when she dreams she realises she has made a prison for them both – they will need to escape, but Mark can’t walk …"

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?