Summary: Alex is imprisoned by a witch and forced to tell her a scary story each night. It is a modern version of the Scheherazade tale.

My notes: I thought this was a bit of a weird story, and was definitely surprised to hear that a movie had been made of it.

Book notes and screen notes: There is a sequel to this book called Gravebooks. There was also a Netflix movie made of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQO16k5Vdow

If you liked this, you might like: Inkheart- Cornelia Funke, The Other Alice- Michelle Harrison ( )

Wow, it had a twist I did not see coming! Yay Lenore!! ( )

Rating based on appropriate age-range (middle-grade). ( )

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! ( )

A boy is kidnapped by a witch and forced to tell scary stories to her. The book is a mix of Hansel & Gretel and Arabian Nights.

Honestly, the witch was pretty nice all things considered. Sure, they were forced to clean and cook and maintain magical plants for her but that's better than mining gold for your starving family or farming cocoa for Hershey. They have free medical benefits, since the witch provides magical ointments to heal wounds. The witch never really did anything that can be considered deeply wicked, she did mean things that were mostly harmless; sure, she threatened to turn them into statues but never tortured or cannibalized them.

And Lenore the cat is too nice. You spend a couple centuries around a cruel, despicable witch and some of that evilness rubs off on you and isn't going to wash away just because some kids were nice to you. ( )