Parents' Guide to

Gravebooks

By Mary Eisenhart, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Creepy "Nightbooks" sequel has vampire, zombies, friendship.

Book J.A. White Fantasy 2022
Cover of Gravebooks by J.A. White featuring kid at gates of spooky graveyard

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

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What's the Story?

"I don't know .... Bad things happen when you open coffins in graveyards. You don't have to be a horror movie buff to know that one," observes young Alex, budding writer and fan of all things creepy, who finds himself once again trapped in the nightmare world of GRAVEBOOKS by the witch once thought to be safely killed off in Nightbooks. And plenty of bad things do happen as he tries to escape the cemetery where all the graves are those of the stories he thought up but never wrote, and he has to bring one of them to life each night or be trapped there forever. Meanwhile, his friend Yasmin has been avoiding him in hopes of having a nice, normal, peaceful life, which is unfortunate, because he may need her help, what with the witches, the vampires, and other dark forces bent on imprisoning him if not killing him. Or maybe worse.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

J.A. White ups the creepiness ante with vampires, zombies, body parts, and the undead in this scary horror sequel. Sensitive and nightmare-prone readers might want to avoid Gravebooks, but horror fans will enjoy this return to the world of Nightbooks and find a lot to scare them. And aspiring writers will relate to young Alex's angst and self-doubt, while picking up a lot of useful tips on the art and craft of storytelling. As in the first book, strong messages of friendship, teamwork, and figuring out ways of dealing with the unexpected are plentiful.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Familles can talk about horror stories and other creepy tales like Gravebooks, and why they have been so popular for centuries. Do you like it when a story scares you, or do you prefer things a bit more safe? Why do you think someone else might see it differently?

  • Is there something you're really inspired by and work really hard at, the way Alex does with storytelling here? Music? A sport? What makes you love it? What sometimes gets hard?

  • If you had to go back and finish one thing you started long ago and never got around to completing, what would it be? And how do you think it might turn out?

Book Details

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