The Sandman and the War of Dreams

The Sandman and the War of Dreams by William Joyce is part of the series The Guardians.

Sanderson Mansnoozie of the League of Star Captains has been asleep for ages, but he wakes up on a floating island after the Man in the Moon rouses him to warn him that the Guardians need his help. He leaves the island to meet up with Santoff Claussen.

The story then cuts to Katherine, who wakes up to find herself in a heavily-wooded forest. She eavesdrops on Pitch and Mother Nature, who are arguing. Pitch is relieved and warmed by the fact that his daughter saved him from the Guardians, but Mother Nature corrects him and says it was Katherine who saved him—it was not her. Mother Nature claims neutrality, only coming out of curiosity to see what was happening. She accuses her father, Pitch, of forgetting her and trying to put Katherine in her place. Pitch denies this. Mother Nature warns him not to touch Katherine, and he agrees, but Pitch is sneaky and not to be trusted.

Meanwhile, North, Ombric, Bunnymund, and Toothiana return to Santoff with rescued children. They wish for Katherine to be alright; Sandy hears their wish. He shows up and puts them to sleep with Dreamsand so he can tell them how Kozmotis Pitchiner turned into Pitch and how his daughter, Emily Jane, became Mother Nature.

Back then, Lord Pitch, as he was known, was a benevolent leader. Even when he captured enemies, he cared for them, and he and his wife raised Emily in a moon palace located in the constellation of Orion. After a feigned ambush on his family by Pitch’s enemies, the Dream Pirates, Pitch left to defeat them. That is when the Dream Pirates attacked Pitch’s palace. Emily was out, so her mother made a dummy to look like her and jumped from a high window with it, to her death. The Dream Pirates believed that both Pitch’s wife and daughter were dead. Upon returning home, the loss of his wife and supposed loss of his daughter drove Pitch mad, causing him to kill the Dream Pirates and vow to capture all the others. Emily did not know that her father thought her dead; she believed that he abandoned her.

Sandy met Emily when she was a shooting star, and they traveled together to defeat Dream Pirates. He taught her friendship and kindness. The Dream Pirates, and subsequently Pitch, learn that Emily Jane is still alive, but Pitch has been possessed by the Fearlings, who turned him into the Nightmare King. He does not realize that Emily is in the star and sends it to Earth before sailing away. The Man in the Moon puts Sandy into a long slumber for his protection, and Emily Jane decides to move on and becomes Mother Nature.

When the Guardians wake from Sandy’s dream, they realize he has gone to find Mother Nature in the hope of rescuing Katherine. He learns that in order to rescue her, they have to build the city at the North Pole; they use four relics—including Dreamsand—to build the city. However, this was Pitch’s plan all along; he planted the dream of the city in Katherine’s mind. To keep Katherine from helping Sandy and the Guardians, he has trapped her in a never-ending nightmare. Meanwhile, Mother Nature agrees to take Sandy to Katherine. She leads him to a cave and then leaves because she does not want to encounter Pitch.

Putting Pitch’s servants to sleep, Sandy sneaks into the cave and finds Katherine under guard. With Nightlight’s help, he manages to save Katherine, though she still sleeps. The farther they get from the cave, the more hope there is that she will wake. Unfortunately, as they reach the North Pole, the Dreamsand starts to change to Nightmare Sand and Sandy loses control of the cloud they are flying on. The other Guardians help fight the cloud, but Katherine falls off of it.

Nightlight saves her and wakes her up from Pitch’s nightmare spell. As a reward for their efforts, Sandy is made a Guardian and Nightlight becomes a real boy again so he can finally grow up like other people. However, at the end of the book, what the Guardians do not realize is that by building the city that Katherine dreamt of, they brought Pitch into it, where he most wanted to be. Though he kept his promise to his daughter not to touch Katherine, he was still able to use her as a means to his end, now planning to wage war on the Guardians at the North Pole.

William Joyce’s books in The Guardians of Childhood series include Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King, E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth’s Core!, Toothiana: Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies, and The Sandman and the War of Dreams.