BEING 8: ASLEEP AND AWAKE by Gilda A. Herrera

Myrtle Martinez, eight, lives two lives: her normal awake life and her dream life in a place called Mystic. Mystic is a world of fun and magic where kids swim in clouds, play with robotic dogs, and have helpful sidewalks. Mystic’s surrounding mists can make it a dangerous place with its powerful magic. After her mother is injured and falls into a coma, Myrtle’s awake life fills with the difficulties of an absent mother. In Mystic, Myrtle and her Mystic friends go on a quest for the mysterious Mystic horizons which promise to reunite Myrtle and her mother. The overriding theme of kids helping kids and others, Myrtle’s awake life friends aid her, while she and her Mystic friends help other kids in bubble dreams trouble of loneliness, a kidnapping, and a lost ambition. In Mystic’s Picturebook  Land, the Mystic gang helps a clumsy polar bear, a trapped robotic man, and a grumpy gorilla. Myrtle's best self overcomes life's obstacles in both her worlds.