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    Nightbooks
    Nightbooks
    Nightbooks
    Audiobook7 hours

    Nightbooks

    Written by J. A. White

    Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A boy is imprisoned by a witch and must tell her a new scary story each night to stay alive. This thrilling contemporary fantasy from J. A. White, the acclaimed author of the Thickety series, brings to life the magic and craft of storytelling. 

    Alex’s original hair-raising tales are the only thing keeping the witch Natacha happy, but soon he’ll run out of pages to read from and be trapped forever. He’s loved scary stories his whole life, and he knows most don’t have a happily ever after. Now that Alex is trapped in a true terrifying tale, he’s desperate for a different ending—and a way out of this twisted place.

    This modern spin on the Scheherazade story is perfect for fans of Coraline and A Tale Dark and Grimm. With interwoven tips on writing with suspense, adding in plot twists, hooks, interior logic, and dealing with writer’s block, this is the ideal book for budding writers and all readers of delightfully just-dark-enough tales.

    * Summer 2018 Kids' Indie Next List * YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * 2019-2020 Florida Sunshine State Young Readers Award * 2020 Rhode Island Children's Book Award Nominee * Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year 2019 (9-12) * 2020-2021 Missouri Association of School Librarians Truman Readers Award Preliminary Nominee *  Texas Bluebonnet Award List 2020-2021 * South Carolina Junior Book Award Nominee (2021-2022) *

    Plus return to the world of Nightbooks—if you dare—with J. A. White's follow-up, Gravebooks!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJul 24, 2018
    ISBN9780062841988
    Author

    J. A. White

    J.A. White is the author of the Thickety series and the Shadow School series as well as Nightbooks, a Netflix film, and its sequel, Gravebooks. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, three sons, and Casper the Friendly Dog. When he’s not making up stories, he teaches fifth graders how to make up stories. To learn more, visit jawhitebooks.com.

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    Reviews for Nightbooks

    4.5/5

    296 ratings26 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title sooooo good, especially if you like magic and scary stories. They love the library, the cat, and the storyline in general. The book is well written and bone chilling, filled with stories to tell your children for years to come. It is an amazing story that is great for any age, with a suspenseful, funny, and kinda scary plot. The narrator did a wonderful job. The only complaint is that the chapters don't match up. Overall, it is an absolutely wonderful story and a new family favorite author.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      I can relate to this as a writer and a dreamer with a very active imagination. This was awesome and well written. I love this book now but younger me would have died with excitement over this story! I especially love the stories within stories and the positive upbeat and happy messages here. If you haven’t read it, you really should!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5

      Aug 17, 2025

      Excellent storytelling including the stories within. Wonderful imagination!! As an adult I really enjoyed this story. It had lots of suspense and hope and perfect amount of scare intimidation. I also enjoyed the movie on Netflix. Only issue I had was the very loud screeching voice the narrator used when Natasha got mad. I had to keep turning the volume down and up throughout. It was too loud at those times. Otherwise narration was good with the different characters voices. I’ve also now listened to the second book which is also excellent. I hope they make a Netflix movie out of that one too.
    • 4/5

      Oct 14, 2024

      A mixture of 1001 Nights meets Hansel and Gretel in a modern apartment building.
    • 2/5

      Jan 1, 2024

      Mostly predictable story and the reader wasn't that good in my opinion. I bet kids love this though, but not exactly for my taste ?
    • 5/5

      Oct 22, 2023

      Sooooooooooooo good especially if you like magic and scary stories
    • 4/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      An absolutely wonderful story! Great narrator! Only complaint is the chapters don't match up narrator states chapter 15 table of contents shows 19....otherwise a new family favorite author.
    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      This book was so great! It was suspenseful, funny, and kinda scary!
      Perfect!
    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      good narrating, I gave the book 3⭐ but the audio was good ♥️
    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      I loved this book! I like the library, and the cat, and the storyline in general!
    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      It was a well written and bone chilling story filled with stories to tell your children for years to come.⭐️
    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      Make a Friday night funkiness book please with bf and gd voices please thank you for the book.
    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      This was awesome book. I listened with my kids and as a parent and the lover of great story this was an excellent choice!!
    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      Loved every single word, every chapter and very character in this book! I did not want it to end!
    • 1/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      I had to stop listening to this book. The sound kept cutting out so I would lose chunks of the story. Is this not happening to anybody else?
    • 5/5

      Sep 12, 2023

      An amazing story! I loved every second of it! I am a middle age women and I think this book is great for any age! I really enjoyed it. The narrator did a wonderful job!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5

      Nov 28, 2023

      Rating based on appropriate age-range (middle-grade).
    • 3/5

      Dec 27, 2021

      Good advice on writing and on how to survive when kidnapped by an evil witch.
    • 4/5

      Oct 13, 2021

      Alex loves to write scary stories, but when he begins to believe that writing them shows that there is something wrong with him, he tries to go to the basement to burn his notebooks in the incinerator. While on the way down, Alex is captured by Natacha, who is a witch. Instead of killing Alex, Natacha wants Alex to read his stories to her each night to appease the apartment, which she tells him is alive. After a while, Alex meets Yasmin, who is another captive, and together they make a plan to try and escape.

      Nightbooks includes the stories that Alex has written and is telling to Natacha, adding another layer to this unique story, which is a cross between Hansel and Gretel and 1001 Arabian Nights. Themes of self acceptance and the value of friendship are explored. The story is spooky enough to be a Halloween staple. Overall, Nightbooks is a fun, scary story that teaches some important lessons.
    • 5/5

      Sep 7, 2021

      I was totally enthralled by this horror story for kids. And though it is intended for kids, undoubtably adults will also enjoy it. Alex is lured into an apartment by a witch and is imprisoned. Another child is also there, and she tell him of others who were there, but are now gone. Or at least, they are no longer children. Alex must tell the witch a horror story each night. It is his only hope of staying alive long enough to figure out how to escape. This creepy book is a wonderfully scary tale, made even more so by the great performance of narrator Kirby Heyborne. The two kid protagonists join forces, using their wits and their brawn to defeat the witch. Author J. A. White crafts a story that engrossing and suspenseful, yet not too scary for older kids. He pays attention to details, drops some clues along the way to entice readers, and wraps everything up in a satisfying conclusion. It’s a great tale, and highly recommended for kids of all ages. Well, at least middle grade school ages and on up to grandparents!
    • 5/5

      Jun 19, 2023

      I can relate to this as a writer and a dreamer with a very active imagination. This was awesome and well written. I love this book now but younger me would have died with excitement over this story! I especially love the stories within stories and the positive upbeat and happy messages here. If you haven’t read it, you really should!
    • 5/5

      Jul 5, 2022

      Alex is enchanted into entering an apartment inhabited by a witch and becomes her prisoner. To appease her and stay alive, each night he reads her a story from his “nightbooks,” the place where he has written down scary ideas. But meanwhile he wonders and plots how he can escape.

      This was such a compelling read. I loved how there was so much “metaness” at play, in which the ideas of how to write a good story are an essential part of the story we are reading. Alex is clever and the unlikely friendships he finds prove how kindness is always the way to go. While the witch’s backstory gives us a bit of sympathy for her, it is undoubtedly clear that she is a villian. The final reveal, however, was one I did not see coming at all, although in retrospect there were some little hints here and there.

      After reading the book, you can watch the movie of the same title for an interesting compare and contrast!
    • 4/5

      Dec 10, 2019

      Alex is lured into a 4th floor apartment when he thinks her hears his favorite movie, Night of the living Dead, playing. He finds that he has been trapped by a witch like many children before him. Inside, the apartment, is sprawling and magical. He finds his Nightbooks, scary stories he has written, come in handy as the witch needs scary stories read every night. Yasmin is also trapped there. The two work together and hatch a plan to escape.
    • 4/5

      Dec 7, 2019

      Alex is being kept prisoner by a witch in an apartment full of books. AT first glance, I thought that wouldn't be too bad. Unfortunately, it is more of a Hansel and Gretel scenario and each night he is required to tell her a story in order to stay alive. If you like Coraline and A Tale Dark and Grimm this will be right up your alley.

      I would place this in a 12 and up category because of its scary factors. It isn't all scare- Nightbooks is a book about friendship and staying true to yourself, even when it isn't easy. Bonus points from me for having an adorable cat in it.

      It's a dark tale with plenty of humor built in, I sped through it in an afternoon and loved it all.
    • 5/5

      Aug 5, 2020

      Fun and creepy!

      After being lured into Apartment 4E by his favorite movie, Night of the Living Dead, Alex realizes he’s been tricked and captured by a witch named Natacha, and that the apartment is somehow magical (and evil). Natacha informs Alex that if he wants to live, he must read her one of his scary stories every night. The only other inhabitant, a fellow prisoner named Yazmin, assures Alex there is no way to escape, but he doesn’t believe her. Determined to find a way out, he continues to read the witch a story every night while searching for a way out during the day. But soon, he only has one story left.

      What I liked: fabulous storyline! An evil witch, a magical apartment, a ticking time bomb—great setting for suspense! And the stories Alex shares with the witch, and the reader, are creepy and fun. It’s like a cross between Hansel and Gretel and Scheherazade. Great characters, too.

      What I didn’t like: not much. It might be a little dark for some younger readers (7 or 8-year-olds) who get scared easily, but if they’re good with Goosebumps, then they should be fine.

      Great and fun book.

      5 out of 5 stars
    • 5/5

      Jul 31, 2020

      This was so fun, I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did an amazing job keeping the listener entertained, they were so into playing the characters that it helped really pull the listener in and want to keep listening.

      The overall story was spooky and whimsical, I really liked the main character ALEX, he had such a great Imagination and I loved that it was on the darker side. Not only was he a great little storyteller but he was a pretty good problem solver. There were many times I thought I figured something out but I kept being wrong and I so enjoyed that, it was predictable and that’s a plus for me.

      I enjoyed the end when more of the inspiration of where the story pulled from started to come to light, and it created such an interesting take on a tale everyone already knows.
    • 5/5

      Jul 24, 2018

      Wow I loved this i read it to my grandson over the weekend we enjoyed it.i couldn't get over how much a 9 year old would enjoy this. I loved reading it to him. It's well written and has a great plot to.. It's one I'm keeping to read to the grandkids