“After his family had finally fallen asleep, Alex slung the backpack over his shoulder and snuck out of the apartment, easing the front door gently home so it didn’t slam shut.”

From J. A. White’s Nightbooks.

Alex lives on the eighth floor of an apartment building in New York City, and after an experience with a scary movie as a little boy, he loves anything creepy, scary, or dark.  His love of the creepy has pushed Alex to write scary stories of his own in journals that he calls his nightbooks; his three nightbooks are full of his terrifying nightmarish stories that overwhelm his mind until he writes them down.  However, after a terrible and embarrassing experience, Alex decides to take his nightbooks down to the basement of his building and destroy them in the furnace, but the elevator inexplicably stops on the fourth floor.  When he hears his favorite movie playing behind the door of apartment 4E, Alex knocks and goes inside when invited in.  Once inside, the illusions disappear and Alex realizes that he’s trapped in a magical apartment with a witch named Natacha.  Once Natacha learns that Alex writes scary stories, she makes him write scary stories to keep her entertained each night.  Shortly after arriving, Alex learns that he is not alone and meets fellow prisoner, Yasmin, and the witch’s familiar (magical servant), a cat named Lenore.  Alex is desperate to escape, but Yasmin ignores him until an accident in Yasmin’s job (gardener for Natacha’s magical plants) requires two people to fix.  When Alex finds notes from a previous storyteller planning an escape, Alex begins to develop a wild plan that just might help him and Yasmin escape.

Despite the fact that it is written for children, White offers scary elements and mini-stories that are chilling for readers of all ages.  The story is captivatingly memorizing as readers follow the characters through a creative, magical, mysterious world.  Almost impossible to put down, Nightbooks is a must read for anyone who enjoys an edge-of-your-seat adventure.