Book Description:

• 2018 Purple Dragonfly Book Award First Place winner for Middle Grade fiction
• 2018 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Gold Medal Winner for Pre-teen fiction - Mature Issues
• 2018 International Book Award Silver Medal Winner Readers' Favorite for Coming of Age

12-year-old Jake has been suppressing his heartbreak over the loss of his mother for the past four years. But his emotions have a way of haunting his dreams and bubbling to the surface when he least expects it. When Jake learns how to take control in his dreams, he becomes a lucid dreamer, and that’s when the battle really heats up.

Using his wits to dodge bullies by day and a nefarious kangaroo hopping ever closer by night, Jake learns about loss, bravery, the power of love, and how you cannot fully heal until you face your greatest fear. This uncompromising novel is a magical yet honest exploration of emotional healing after a devastating loss.

Described as a “poignant coming-of-age novel (that) offers a sensitive and honest examination of a child’s spiritual and emotional battles” by The BookLife Prize.


Jake, Lucid Dreamer is a heartwarming coming-of-age story about a boy learning to deal with the loss of his mother. Although this is a middle grade novel it will appeal to adult readers who can appreciate the wonder years of childhood on the cusp of young adulthood.

Tackling the subject of the loss of a parent from a 12-year-old's perspective is not an easy feat. Author David J. Naiman not only succeeds in doing that but he easily immerses the reader into the world of Jake, a pre-teen who is just starting middle school and is dealing with his anger at losing his mother to cancer, dealing with school bullies, new and old friendships, budding feelings for a girl and his ability to lucid dream.

Although there is a lot going on, and the fantastical element of lucid dreaming adds a whimsical touch to this story, I found the various themes (death, friendship, school life, sibling rivalry) interrelated smoothly and the situations to be realistically portrayed. As a mother of two teens, one being a boy, I was touched and quickly related to the family scenes and could see my own boy in Jake. I also liked that this was an interracial family.

Jake is a great character. He is bright, observant, imaginative and hurting. The story is written from his first person point-of-view and seeing the world through his eyes was insightful, funny, sad, creative and absorbing. As a parent, it reminded me of how children see the world. I loved this book. It was well-written, full of learning moments within the struggles of daily life of a grieving family. The ending brought tears to my eyes.

Highly recommended to readers who love children's literature with universal themes and magical realism. I sincerely hope that the author keeps writing this genre. This book will be on my Best Reads of 2018 list.

Disclosure: Thanks to the author for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

After graduating from Wesleyan University, David J. Naiman obtained his medical degree at New York University School of Medicine and trained in the primary care internal medicine program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Writing nights and weekends, he published the award-winning #1 Amazon bestselling novel Didn’t Get Frazzled, a work of humorous medical fiction for adults, under the pen name David Z Hirsch.

From there, David turned to children’s literature to pursue the themes of family, friendship and the magic of childhood and published the multiple award-winning #1 Amazon bestselling novel Jake, Lucid Dreamer.
When he’s not writing, David toils in the front lines of primary care internal medicine, battling scourges like diabetes, heart disease, and insurance companies, although probably not in that order. He lives in Maryland with his wife and two sons.

Visit the author on his Website.

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