Summary
Theo Dunnery is a shy, 12-year-old boy who likes to blend in with the crowd, especially to avoid the school bully, Asher. Then, one day Theo is transported to another world where he must go on a quest to earn seals of truth that will change him at home in his real life. While in the “other world” it is like Theo is sleeping, hence the title, “Dream Traveler’s Quest.” Theo is transported four times and has four different quests, sometimes waking up at home in the middle of the quest.
In the first quest, Theo is alone and meets many new friends, as well as his enemy, Shadow Man. In the second quest, Theo brings along a beautiful girl from his class, Annelee. During the third, he brings a blind classmate, Danny. For the fourth and final quest, Asher the school bully is used as a pawn by Shadow Man and brought to the other world for evil purposes.
In each quest, Theo has an encounter with Elyon- or God in our world- and sometimes Justin- or Jesus in our world. Elyon sends Theo on these quests to find out the five seals of truth: 1- Elyon is the light of the world without darkness. 2- I am the light. 3- Our journey is to see the light in darkness. 4- Surrender is the means of seeing the light. 5- Love is the evidence of being in the light.
Each quest has dangerous, life-threatening encounters that Theo narrowly escapes, but in the end, all four students earn all the seals of truth and set out in their real lives with this new knowledge to live life in light of that.
Reading level: Ages 8+.
Mom Thoughts
Ted Dekker wrote this series with his daughter Kara and they effectively capture the reader into an exciting, imaginative, fast-paced story. What was challenging about this story was Dekker’s object. A story loses its allegorical qualities when the author comes right out and says that the character Elyon is God and another character, Justin, is Jesus. I have a much harder time forgiving imperfections in their representations when they are actually supposed to BE those people.
I very much enjoyed the seal of truth from book 1: Elyon (God) is infinite and cannot be threatened by anything, ever. Book 2, however, was a bit more disappointing in its “truth.” Annelee, the beautiful girl Theo brings with him, is told she has to “love the one whom she hated,” which ends up being herself. This book paints the picture that to know and love God, Annelee first had to love herself. Our problem isn’t a lack of self-love, it’s a lack of seeing God for who He truly is and finding our identity in Him. I’m not saying that some children don’t have a skewed view of themselves or struggle with loving themselves. What I am saying is the answer isn’t looking to ourselves and saying “You are worthy,” it’s looking at God and saying, “You are holy and perfect and you still chose to die for me so I can live with and for You.”
Book 3 focuses on seeing through “Kingdom glasses” to accurately view the world. While I agree that we need a Christian worldview, the emphasis here instead seems to be finding the good in the bad. I also have a hard time with the seal for this book which at one point they called their “purpose.” “We live in darkness to the kingdom of heaven, and our quest is to see it! It’s our purpose!” While rejoicing in God’s glory is obviously a good thing, I do not think our life’s purpose is to simply LOOK for God’s glory, but to LIVE to glorify Him and make Him known.
Book 4’s seals I could get behind a little more, but the overall message of the series was a little muddy. There was much good in these books: surrendering your fears to God, knowing your true beauty isn’t on the outside, loving your enemies, not listening to lies of the enemy, and knowing that no one is beyond God’s love were some of the highlights. I felt like the message leaned heavily to universalism with a dash of the Tolstoyan movement. In my own words, “The light of God is within you and you need only see it to be the light to the world.” There is no talk of trusting Christ for your salvation and turning from your sin, or anything really gospel-centered. If you think I am being harsh on a children’s allegory, again, when you come out and say that a character is God and one is Jesus, it is hard to be lenient.
An older, discerning child might be able to navigate this series without reading into the “Seals of Truth,” but it is hard for me to recommend this series, despite it being an exciting read, because of the confusing spiritual themes.
Language:
Asher calls Annelee, “Ugly girl.”
Some descriptive language during battle scenes like it could “tear his throat out.”
Questionable Behaviors:
Asher beats up Theo as well as almost hitting Annelee at one point.
Asher does many evil things while under the power of Shadow Man, like kidnapping Annelee.
Theo has a sleepover and invites Danny and Annelee. Although his dad initially says no to Annelee, after convincing, he allows it.
Sexual Content:
It is very clear that Theo has a crush on Annelle and often comments on her beauty, although never sexually.
Other:
Theo is told to remember to “follow your heart.”
The battle scene can be intense, although no main character ever dies, only injured.
