Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King

Joyce, W. & Geringer, L. (2011).  Nicholas St. North and the battle of the Nightmare King. (Joyce, W. illus.). Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

240 pages. ISBN 9781442430488

Primary genre: fantasy

Other elements: adventure, friendship, coming of age, folklore

Intended reader age: 7 and up

Synopsis:

The Nightmare King has awoken from his imposed slumber and is set on righting the wrongs that were done to him all those years ago. North, Nicholas St. North, has no idea of the problems he is being dragged into when a dream leads him to untold riches. He has lived a life of adventure and thrills, and fighting is what he knows best. But, after saving the small village of Santoff Claussen, he decides to stay and learn all that he can from the infamous Ombric. It is these skills and his finely honed fighting ability that give him the strength to take to face the nightmare King. But, can he stop him on his own?

Review:

William Joyce is an author/ illustrator that I did not realize that I knew, and loved, until the Meet the Robinsons movie. It was this movie, and the book it is based on, that put him on my radar. Then came the oh-so-amazing short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and I was a goner. I was able to use him as a subject for a paper I had to write last semester for my Books for Young Readers course. I did a paper comparing and contrasting the illustrative styles of his works with Tony DiTerlizzi’s (another amazing author/ illustrator).

I am always curious with books that are co-authored about the distribution of writing that occurs and this book is no different. My interactions with Joyce’s writings have all been through children’s picture books and it is difficult to learn style through those. I read a great deal of James Paterson when I was young (okay, my teens) and now I have a hard time getting into his new co-authored books because I can read the differences in style. These new books don’t hold that same appeal because it was the writing that drew me into his books. So, back to the Joyce/ Geringer writing. In their case I am just curious about how they broke up the work, since he was also the creator of the illustrations in the story.

This is part of a series, which is based off the picture book: The Man in the Moon (which I own and was able to get signed by Mr. Joyce himself). The picture book gives the back-story, the battle that is referred to in this book. Otherwise the chapter books have two other books: E. Aster Bunny and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth’s Core and Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Armies. And it was these books that inspired the movie: Rise of the Guardians. It was interesting to see the movie then read the books because the book focuses more on the creation of St. Nick while the movie already had them established as the legend he is.