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The Nightmare House

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

From Sarah Allen, the acclaimed author of What Stars Are Made Of and Breathing Underwater, comes a chilling middle-grade tale of fear, friendship, and finding courage even in the darkest of moments. In this monster story that's also an allegory for relentless anxiety, see how far a penny's worth of hope will take you when you enter The Nightmare House.

I saw a person with blank, colorless eyes ... and this time, I wasn't dreaming.

Penny Hope used to be brave, but that was before she met the Fear Maker. Years later, he still haunts her nightmares―a tall, thin man with red eyes, in a haunted house in the woods, who devours human souls and leaves their eyes hollow and empty. Penny's beloved grandma tells her to write down these nightmares as poems in her notebook. But then Penny starts seeing blank-eyed people in the waking world, too. She's the only one who notices.

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 12, 2023
      White-cued 11-year-old Penny Hope’s anxiety manifests as a real-life monster under her bed in this ethereal novel by Allen (Breathing Underwater). For the past four years, Penny’s anxieties have been heightened by the presence of the Fear Maker, a creature of “nightmare and shadow” who lives beneath her bed. But now the Fear Maker, having become a corporeal entity, is stealing the “soul, their them-ness” of the people in her town. Only Penny can see her soulless neighbors’ “blank, colorless, empty eyes,” resulting in intense feelings of isolation. When her supportive poet grandmother encourages her to write about her fears and introduces her to homeschooled Indian-cued peer Aarush Banerjee, Penny feels as if she’s found a bright spot. As the Fear Maker’s power intensifies, however, Penny learns that to destroy him, she must “pick one thing you’re afraid of, and do it.” She resolves to face her fears by joining Aarush in a poetry contest, hoping to find the right words to overcome her anxieties. Poetic prose and visceral emotion infuse realistic depth into this mood-driven, allegorical portrayal of mental illness. Stark b&w illustrations by Hewitt employ a photo negative effect to accentuate Penny’s brooding poems. Ages 10–12. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:750
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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