The Spectator – November 2011

“…Also set at school, but altogether darker in tone, is The Dream Dealer by Marita Phillips. This privately published paper-back (order through Amazon or via www.thedreamdealer.co.uk at £4.99) is a great deal better than many conventionally published books I am sent. It is the story of the luckless Finn, who lives with his drunken father and yearns to find his long lost mother, who disappeared when he was a baby. An outcast at school, with no friend but his pet mouse, Hercules, Finn’s life takes a turn for the better with the arrival of the new girl, Delphi; but then the sinister Dream Dealer, with his yellow face and wrinkled skin, and his spiteful sidekick the Earth Imp, turns up at the school gate with his van to sell his seductive Ice Dreams, with disastrous results for those who taste his corrupting wares. The book is prefaced by reviews by child readers, and they all agreed, as I do, that it is a gripping page-turner…”

Click here to read full article