Review: Nightbooks

Nightbooks by J.A. White
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars

This book for middle graders has its strong points, including a child central character who loves to read and especially to write. It also shows a collaborative friendship develop out of adversity between the protagonist, Alex, the young writer, Yasmin, a girl stranded in the same magical apartment by an evil witch, and Lenore, a very interesting cat. Alex was captured by the witch and kept to tell his stories, because the witch perceives "darkness" in his heart. Alas, the witch, while clever, approaches elementary-grade chapter-reader trope status.

Being marketed as a spin on Scheherazade spinning the tales of A Thousand Nights and One Night and the Brothers Grimm's Hansel and Gretel, Nightbooks is a cautionary tale about going out late at night, especially without telling your parents, and about young people writing ghost or horror stories. After all, if you write dark things, grownups might think you are dark inside and you'll have to work overtime convincing them that you're being brave in battling dark things and emerging undefeated. You'll have to explain you're just a nice kid who likes monsters.

While there are things that charm about the story, I had hoped for a bit more depth. Even some middle-graders may feel the whiff of a deus ex machina resolution to Alex, Yasmin and Lenore's plight.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from the Katherine Tegen Imprint via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

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