Description
A collection of jaunty and mischievously unsettling poems for middle-grade readers from award-winning poet Shannon Bramer and artist Cindy Derby, who brought us Climbing Shadows (NCTE Notable Poetry Book and Verse Novel, shortlisted for the Rocky Mountain Book Award).
Shannon’s twenty-eight poems in Nightmare Jones send delightful shivers down the spine. Written in a variety of styles and forms, they encompass magic realism and influences from fairy tales, folklore and ghost stories, alongside more contemporary explorations of unusual creatures, misunderstood monsters and commonplace human fears (both ridiculous and sublime!). Cindy Derby’s evocative line and watercolor illustrations inhabit these weird and wonderful works with her characteristic flair for the strange and witchy wonders of the world.
In these poems what makes a person scared might also make them sad, or even make them laugh, as Bramer writes from a place of wonder, empathy, curiosity and reverence for the deep dark woods we all have inside us. If you’ve ever wanted to spend some time in a witch’s garden or wondered what spiders do with our worries, this is the poetry book for you!
Key Text Features
dialogue
epigraph
illustrations
poems
recipes
table of contents
vignettes
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.2
Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone
Author Bio
SHANNON BRAMER is an author of poems, plays and short fiction. She has published Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children, illustrated by Cindy Derby; Robot, Unicorn, Queen: poems for you and me, illustrated by Irene Luxbacher (David Booth Children’s and Youth Poetry Award); and several poetry collections for adults, including Precious Energy and suitcases and other poems (Hamilton and Region Arts Council Book Award). She lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario.
CINDY DERBY is an author, illustrator and puppeteer. Her illustrations for Outside In by Deborah Underwood received a Caldecott Honor and a Golden Kite Honor. She has written and illustrated the highly acclaimed picture books Blurp’s Book of Manners, Two Many Birds (Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year) and How to Walk an Ant. Her work has received international recognition from France, Brazil and Japan. Cindy lives with her family in San Francisco.
Prizes
- Kirkus Best Middle Grade Books of the YearCommended 2025
- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon AwardsCommended 2025
Review Quotes
“Beautifully crafted and appropriately spine-tingling. ... Delicious poetry paired with haunting art speaks with authority to the darkness so many kids crave.” — Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“A true embrace of the spooky corners that exist both out in the world and in our own worst thoughts. ... Simultaneously grim and lovely.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, STARRED REVIEW
“An eerie, yet magical world … The poems feel as if [Alvin] Schwartz teamed up with Shel Silverstein.” — School Library Journal
“Nightmare Jones is a dark delight of storytelling poems that will feel like a gift to many kids who, like Bramer and Derby, are attuned to the gothic side of life.” — Quill & Quire, STARRED REVIEW
“For those who love the feeling of a chill down their spine, this is the collection that will deliver. It is imaginative, uncanny, thrilling, and oddly fun to read.” — Canadian Children’s Book News
“Nightmare Jones ... will leave readers considering the many issues raised in the poems.” — Winnipeg Free Press
“Destined to creep out the most jaded of middle- and even high-schoolers. [Derby’s] smeary illustrations, often recalling Stephen Gammell at his most macabre, echo the gleeful darkness of [Bramer’s poems].” — Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
