A Great Adventure in The Land of Dreams! -- A Fantasy With a Moral Lesson

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Sharing the world is never an easy task to achieve, especially when there are so many different kinds of people, attitudes, and cultures conflicting with each other. But no matter how daunting it is, people can still live in peace and harmony together as long as understanding and acceptance between them exists. This is the theme that author Tapan Sen shares with readers with his amazing story that will take them to a realm of fantasy and friendship in the new picture book Beyond The Land of Dreams.

Beyond The Land of Dreams tells the story of a nine-year-old boy named Sammy, who lives in the outskirts of New York City. Lonely, Sammy is lucky that he has friends and that his next birthday celebration is moving closer. Unfortunately for him, his best friend Jill would miss his birthday. Good thing however, Sammy received his birthday present from Jill, a fantasy novel titled Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which made him ecstatic. A short time later, Sammy read the book and just when he was feeling tired, a rabbit appeared before him. Surprised, Sammy examined the rabbit to see if it was real but learned it was called a “habbit,” not a “rabbit.” But the excitement did not end there because soon enough, Sammy met even one more animal, a boy and a girl, and with them he socialized, learned their names, learned their species, and even went to places beyond his wildest imagination! His experience with the animals, the boy and the girl and the new world overwhelmed him deeply, but are all of these real or is it all just a wild imagination sparked by the new book?

Imaginative and richly layered, Beyond The Land of Dreams is an entertaining fantasy enriched by the moral lesson of making friends by accepting and understanding them despite their differences. Readers will realize that the different characters in the story represent different groups of people who have differences in characteristics, customs and ways of life. As the story teaches readers not to have any problem in accepting one another (no matter how different they are from each other), parents will definitely be interested in this picture book which they can use to teach their children in an enjoyable way to accept the unity in diversity of different people.

Tapan Sen moved to the United States from India in 1972. He earned two master’s degrees in mathematics: one from Calcutta, India, and the other one from the United States. He then received a doctorate degree in Operations Research. Dr. Sen wrote fourteen books in his native language -- Bengali -- on various topics. Beyond the Land of Dreams is his first venture in English. Dr. Sen has lived with his wife Tripti and his son Badsha in Greensboro, North Carolina, since 1980.