The Guardians of Childhood Series by William Joyce comprises of five novels and three picture books, with the number of pages ranging from 100-368 pages. In order of release dates the tiles comprise of The Man in the Moon, 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, The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie, The Sandman and the War of Dreams, Jack Frost, Jack Frost: The End Becomes the Beginning. Joyce had started publishing the first three books, when DreamsWorks Studio and Joyce announced the production of the film Rise of the Guardians. A film based on the book series Guardians of Childhood, in which Joyce was a executive producer for.
The Guardians of Childhood is classified as middle grade fantasy and is also categorized under adventure, magic, and fairy tales. The series follows a young girl named Katherine from the magical village of Santoff Claussen and her journey as she saves the world from Pitch Black with her fellow Guardians. Through her narrative, readers will find themselves emerged in the origins of well known fairytale characters from childhood, St. Nicholas North ([1]), E. Aster Bunnymund ([2]), Toothiana ([3]), The Sandman, and Jack Frost. Weaving the individual stories of the famous characters into a larger plot conveying magic, hope, and joy. While the picture books follows the wider narrative of the Man in the Moon, Jack Frost and Sandman.
As well as the author of the book, Joyce is also the illustrator of the drawings included in both the paperback and hardcover editions of the novels. The illustrations are stylistically drawn to portray a sense of whimsicalness reminiscent of childhood daydreams. They are all drawn in black and white and are often found at the start of each of the books as a character directory. Through this artistic approach the reader can see the characters grow in the the illustrations, to further emphasize the overall theme of growing up. Additionally the images are spread throughout the entire novel, often found in the corners of pages. Or in the middle of the novel, covering almost the entirety of some of the pages. Specific examples can be seen in "The Sandman and the War of the Dreams". There are often illustrations of objects as well, whimsical artifacts in the book drawn in a more dreamlike nature compared to the reality counterpart.