Dream Factory

Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler
Dutton Juvenile (2007)
ISBN 9780525478027
Reviewed by Ian McCurley (age 13) for Reader Views (4/07)

Disney has a problem.  All their characters have gone on strike, so they hire teenagers as “scabs.”  These teenagers include Luke and Ella.  Luke and his girlfriend, Cassie, play Dale and Chip in that order.  Ella plays Cinderella.  When Mark, a boy who’s in love with Disney and knows just about everything about it, is promoted from ice cream vendor to Prince Charming, a fun but not quite so heart-felt romance is started.  All the while, Luke is having his own lackluster love with Cassie who is blonde, smart and athletic with a personality of a Nerf football.  When a Disney scavenger hunt is started to promote teamwork, Luke is forced to pair up with Ella after Cassie jumps on Mark because he knows everything about the park.  Cassie and Mark search for clues, but Luke and Ella, knowing that it’s pointless to try, just talk and discover that they have personalities that fit.  As the competition draws to a close and resolution of the strike becomes imminent, Mark and Ella invite Luke and Cassie on a double date.  The entire time, Cassie tries to make Ella jealous, and seeing this, Luke decides to break up with her.  Gradually, they begin to spend begin to spend more time together and Luke and Ella fall in love… real love. 

“Dream Factory” is a book about young love and the not-so-glamorous world of the Disney performer.  Brad Barkley and Heather Hepler write wonderfully in this novel told by two people with separate and very different viewpoints.  I would have really liked the story if I were a teenage girl, which I’m not.  I read the book over the weekend because I wasn’t going to take this hot pink book to school.  But I did think it was a really good, well-written romance novel and the better of the two I’ve read.

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