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Moe'uhane, the Hawaiian word for dream, means soul sleep. Hawaiians of old believed they communicated with 'auma-kua, their ancestral guardians, while sleeping, and this important relationship was sustained through dreaming. During soul sleep, people received messages of guidance from the gods; romantic relationships blossomed; prophecies were made; cures were revealed. Dreams provided inspiration, conveying songs and dances that were remembered and performed upon waking. Specialists interpreted dreams, which were referred to and analyzed whenever important decisions were to be made.

Having no written language, Hawaiians passed their history and life lessons down in the form of legends, which were committed to memory and told and retold. And within these stories are a multitude of dreams--as in a famous legend of the goddess Pele, who travels in a dream to meet and entrance the high chief Lohi'au. Dreams continue to play an important role in modern Hawaiian culture and are considered by some to have as powerful an influence today as in ancient times. In this companion volume to her award-winning Hawaiian Legends of the Guardian Spirits, artist Caren Loebel-Fried retells and illuminates nine dream stories from Hawai'i's past that are sure to please readers young and old, kama'aina and malihini, alike.

Caren Loebel-Fried is an award-winning author and artist from Volcano, Hawai'i. Plants, birds, conservation, and the natural world are the foundations for her work. Caren has created seven storybooks to date, including Hawaiian Legends of the Guardian Spirits and Hawaiian Legends of Dreams, all made with the ancient art of block printing, taught to her by her mother. Caren's books have been recipients of the American Folklore Society's Aesop Prize for Children's Folklore and the Hawai'i Book Publishers Association's Ka Palapala Po'okela Awards.

In addition to books, Caren creates iconic, educational art for local and national conservation organizations and government agencies, including the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Kilauea Point Natural History Association, and Conservation Council for Hawai'i. In the Hawaiian rainforest, she lives among many native plant and bird species. Caren spent five weeks on Midway Atoll counting and researching albatrosses and the native plants there. Caren aims to bring people, especially children, closer to the natural world with the hope that they will want to help care for it.