Dream Monsters

When Syah Walker befriends Aman, the new boy at school, she isn't fooled by his laid-back and carefree attitude. Her experience as the peer counselor at Emdaria North Middle School tells her that not everything is right with Aman. When he has a sudden panic attack, Syah joins him in an emergency MindLink session. When she Drifts into Aman's mind, she discovers that he suffers from a serious anxiety disorder and an underlying fear of failure. In the chaos of Aman's mindscape, Syah encounters his mental constructs of deceitful secret societies and steam-powered monsters, which separate them before she can truly help Aman. The MindLink session quickly tests Syah's own mental strength as she tries to free both Aman and herself from his inner demons, and to help him overcome his fear of failure. This exciting adventure will capture readers' imaginations and keep them turning the page to follow Syah's latest journey inside the mind. See a video interview with the author and discover more titles in the series when you scan the book with the free Capstone 4D augmented reading app.

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Dream Monsters: A 4D Book

Extras

Anxiety Resources

During the course of writing this book, I researched anxiety a great deal: how anxiety works, anxiety specifically in kids, and, perhaps most importantly, the best ways to deal with anxiety--in yourself and others. Below I have shared some resources that may be helpful if you, or your child, friend, or someone you know has anxiety.

For Kids

For Parents:

General Resources:

Early Concept Sketches

As a lover of art and writing, I sometimes find it easiest to sketch out my ideas for stories in a visual form. I wanted to try to capture the feeling of Syah entering the Drift--and someone's mind. So while this sketch wasn't of any particular scene I was trying to visualize, I still felt I wanted to create something that could help to show this important part of Syah's life. And that's why this concept looks a little dreamlike--it helps relate Syah's experience of going into someone's mind with how I describe it in the books as being a little like falling asleep. The experience of exploring someone's mindscape also has a sort of dreamlike quality. So I think I made this sketch to try to "see" Syah's state of mind at that point. And Dream Monsters is all about the creations of a mind--both the good and the bad . . .

Syah going into the Drift
Concept art for Syah in the moment and feeling of Drifting into someone else's mindscape.