Sign of the Sandman

Charlie Galen’s vivid imagination has transported him places no other kid in New York City—or the world for that matter—has ever been. But even in his wildest dreams, Charlie has never battled an army of furies, gripped the Sands of Time, or spoken with the one person he has always longed to meet. That all begins to change one mysterious night when a series of strange events forces him to question everything he sees and believes, launching him on a journey that neither he, nor any who read his tale, will soon forget. For it is on this grand adventure that a magical world is revealed—a world that just might make all of Charlie’s dreams come true, if only he can unlock its secrets before his deepest fears destroy him.

Gr 4–6—Ten-year-old Charlie Galen and his best friend, Plug, are plunged into the Dreamscape, the world where human dreams begin. Charlie is astonished to discover he is the son of the Sandman, "a child born of sand and man, endowed with the power to banish evil from dreams." The Guardians of the Dreamscape have been protecting Charlie, the Heir, from the denizens of nightmares and their ruler, Moloch. Charlie and Plug travel in and out of the Dreamscape, from reality to dreams to nightmares, first escaping, then fighting and destroying Moloch. This is lightweight chase-and-escape fantasy, with little substantive world-building. The plot borrows from world mythology but is not rooted in it. The characters skate nimbly on a surface of shallow action. The 10-year-old main characters have teenage sensibilities—while their dialogue has humor, their worldview can sometimes ring false. Likable sidekick Plug has all the best lines. Underdeveloped female players suffer from stock characterizations, and poetically evocative descriptions of the Dreamscape are not enough to energize the clichéd situations. The "chosen child" hero is a well-worn trope that needs radically original treatment to make it shiny and new; the outcome here provides satisfying, if predictable, closure.—Janice M. Del Negro, GSLIS Dominican University, River Forest, IL