Nightbooks by J A White - ADVISABLE

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Nightbooks by J A White, 320 pages. Katherine Tegen (Harper), 2018. $7 (paperback).

Content: G (it is a bit creepy)

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Alex has been fascinated with horror since he was 4 yeas old, but tonight he has decided to burn his notebooks of creepy stories.  As he passes apartment 4E, however, he hears his favorite movie.  When he enters the home at the invitation of the renter, he finds himself trapped in a real nightmare.  The woman is a witch.  Her apartment is just a front – a way to capture children.  If Alex can tell her an original story every night, she will keep him alive.  There is only one other child in the apartment, Yasmin, and a cat who is the witch’s spy.  Then in the witch’s library they find writing sin the margins of some books they may just give them a clue to a way out of this terror.

An awesome creepy combination of Arabian Nights and Hansel and Gretel! Nicely twisted tale that is just the right balance of horror.

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS