Watch Kids' Reviews of
AOEDE'S "WHAT ARE DREAMS MADE OF?"

see adult comments

Aoede, the muse of song, has a question, "What are dreams made of?" She is continually visited by a terrible nightmare about the children of Wonderhaven being spirited away by a siren. In search of an answer to why she is having this dream, she finds out that the part about the children is real, and the part about the siren, a distorted version of herself, might become real, if she doesn't defy it. Aoede then looks at the heart of her dream, and decides what it is made of, which means, because she says that life is but a dream, that she looked at the heart of her life and decided what it was made of. She chooses who she is going to be, instead of just letting things happen. Aoede's answer is that we decide what our dreams are made of.

It meets baseline criteria, has good appeal for children, is entertaining, and teaches a good lesson about not letting evil come and change the wonderful person you were meant to be, but it does not significantly exceed the criteria, and younger ages may be frightened of the siren, how she takes the children away, and the stealing of their dreams and memories.

Its greatest strength is its songs, which are fascinating. The structure is good. The writer made the meaning to the story subtle but also made the story produce thoughtfulness, so that the viewer could work out the meaning in his ruminations. Other strengths are how nice everyone is, and how perfectly clean the story is. The good characters are good, the bad characters are bad, and then there's Luk, Aoede's interesting house goblin, not quite good, not quite bad, who'll serve you faithfully if you're good to him, and make your life a misery if you're not. There is a weakness also, to be found in the characters, excepting Luk. They are natural in their reactions and their dialogue, but they are not outstanding in their personalities. Yes, children will like to visit and learn about the world of Wonderhaven, getting to know the characters. They will like the magical nature of the story, the colorful ideas, and the music. Older boys, though, might shy away from the story as it is a musical.

This is a unique musical story combining narration, story, characters and music intended for tweens and teens and tells the tale of Aoede the Muse's adventures in the magical kingdom of Wonderhaven. Aoeda has a bad dream, children go missing and Aoede has to explore both overland and underworld where she meets magical characters including fairies, goblins and dream gods to figure out what it all means.