View source for While We Sleep... the Dream Snatchers Cometh! by Wolfren Riverstick

{{infobox1
|title=While We Sleep... the Dream Snatchers Cometh!
|author=Wolfren Riverstick
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A story of great originality about the battle between the Dremlocks and Inkybyes for the minds of the Jacksons of Jacksonville.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=240
|publisher=Crazy Wolf Books
|date=February 2011
|isbn=978-0955431432
|website=http://www.crazywolfbooks.co.uk/
|cover=0955431433
|aznuk=0955431433
|aznus=0955431433
}}

You could be forgiven for thinking that the Jackson family was unimaginative.  Jack Jackson, the head of the household was generally known as Pa, even before he had any children to call him by that name.  His wife, Jacqueline, was known as Ma.  You could put all this down to accident but naming their first child Jackie (after a comic which Ma had enjoyed in her youth) and their second child Jacques might confirm your fears.  It was a few years before they acquired a pet, but the cat was to be called Jackson and the Dutch Hamster Sjaak.  Guess what their house was called?  Yup – it was Jacksonville.

Pa Jackson had a liking for cheese and it was probably this that was at the root of the nightmares he suffered.  The cheese didn't just bring the nightmares: the ''aroma'' attracted a breed of dream demons known as the Inkybyes.  Jacksonville was infested with these jet-black, female demons who preyed on people when they were feeling low.  Help was at hand, though, in the form of the Dremlocks, who always travelled in threes and released dreams, good dreams.  Before long Jacksonville would become the site of a major battle between the Inkybyes and the Dremlocks with the Jackson family finding that their pleasant dreams were all turning into nightmares.  Even the cat and the hamster would have a part to play.

When you read Wolfren Riverstick – Wolfie as he's known to his friends – you get an original story that's been well thought out and neatly put together.  You ''don't'' get a story that's a variation of something that you've read a thousand times before.  I loved the idea of the family having wonderful dreams (I was ''deeply'' envious of Ma at one point) which evolved into nightmares and then when they woke up they didn't find the peace they were expecting: they were in a war zone and it was a fight to the death.

Wolfie develops some great characters.  You get the feeling that Pa is a bit of a slob but with a kind heart and the kids would like to rip each other to shreds but would kill anyone else who tried the same thing.  Ma loves nothing quite so much as a long soak in a hot bath and it's very nearly her undoing.  They're family and just like people we all know., but Wolfie takes them and weaves them into a pacey adventure story.

It'll be quite a while before they eat cheese again though.

I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

We also enjoyed one of Wolfie's earlier books – [[A Cat Called Ian by Wolfren Riverstick|A Cat Called Ian]].

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