Did you ever build a model airplane that would really fly, or know someone else who did, or maybe wish, much later, that you had dared to try? In the fifties, when I was growing up, all the boys tried to make them, but you weren't supposed to take any of that very seriously. I did and in spite of being laughed at and even bullied, I refused to give up. One day, I discovered that a few dedicated people had actually built radio controlled airplanes. Talking about that got me laughed at even more, so what else could I do but promise myself that by the end of my senior year in high school, I would build one of my own and make it fly? A Gift of Dreams is a classic Amercian coming-of-age tale cast well outside the ordinary mold, a memoir with roots deep in the intensity of youthful experience all in the unique context of a New England seacoast village. But A Gift of Dreams is more than building model airplanes...it is about finding the courage in daring to be different.