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Nighttime #1-3
Nightmare Inn: 3 in 1
Three collections of spooky tales! Includes Too Afraid to Scream, Too Dark to See, and Too Scared to Sleep. 80 pages each.
560 pages, Paperback
First published November 29, 1993
3 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
About the author
Todd Strasser
224 books799 followersTodd Strasser is an American author of more than 130 novels for adults, young-adults, and middle graders.
His most recent novel is Summer of '69
Booklist review: "Drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll, those hallmarks of the summer of 1969, are all here, but there's so much more. In this loosely autobiographical novel, Strasser introduces 18-year-old Lucas, who is bright and sensitive but also a screw up…. The picture painted of the Woodstock music festival shows the dark side of peace and love, and the prevalence of drugs is on almost every page…The best part of the book, however, is the one that transcends eras: Lucas' introspection as he contemplates his place in the world."
Kirkus review: "Strasser perfectly captures the golden haze of youth and life on the cusp of adulthood. Readers fascinated with this time period will find much to enjoy... Vietnam, Woodstock, road trips, and acid trips: a sweetly bittersweet, surprising, even melancholy bildungsroman set against a world in flux. Groovy, man."
His most recent young adult novel is Price of Duty:
2018 New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
“Compact and suspenseful, the novel raises important questions about war.” – Kirkus
“This thought-provoking book is both welcome and imperative.” – Booklist * (starred review).
"Rather than attempting to sway the reader, it offers awareness." - VOYA
“Tightly wound and compelling ... appropriate for an older middle school and high school audience. VERDICT: Highly recommended.” – School Library Journal
Bio: Todd was born in New York City. When he was young his parents moved to Roslyn Heights, New York (Long Island). Todd went to the I.U. Willets Elementary school and then attended the Wheatley School for junior high and high school. His best subjects were math and science. He also liked to read, but he had trouble with spelling and grammar, and didn't do well in English. His favorite sports were tennis, skiing and fishing. Todd went to college at New York University for a few years, and then dropped out. He lived on a commune, then lived in Europe where he was a street musician.
All the while, Todd wrote songs and poems and lots of letters to his friends back home. Finally he decided to try being a writer. He returned to the United States and went to Beloit College where he studied literature and writing.
After college, Todd worked at the Middletown Times Herald-Record newspaper in Middletown, New York, and later at Compton Advertising in New York City. In 1978, Todd sold his first novel, Angel Dust Blues. He used the money to start the Dr. Wing Tip Shoo fortune cookie company. For the next 12 years, Todd sold more fortune cookies than books.
Todd now divides his time between writing books and speaking at schools and conferences. When he's at home, he likes to spend time with his children and dog, Cooper. He still likes to play tennis and ski, but his favorite new sport is surfing.
His most recent novel is Summer of '69
Booklist review: "Drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll, those hallmarks of the summer of 1969, are all here, but there's so much more. In this loosely autobiographical novel, Strasser introduces 18-year-old Lucas, who is bright and sensitive but also a screw up…. The picture painted of the Woodstock music festival shows the dark side of peace and love, and the prevalence of drugs is on almost every page…The best part of the book, however, is the one that transcends eras: Lucas' introspection as he contemplates his place in the world."
Kirkus review: "Strasser perfectly captures the golden haze of youth and life on the cusp of adulthood. Readers fascinated with this time period will find much to enjoy... Vietnam, Woodstock, road trips, and acid trips: a sweetly bittersweet, surprising, even melancholy bildungsroman set against a world in flux. Groovy, man."
His most recent young adult novel is Price of Duty:
2018 New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
“Compact and suspenseful, the novel raises important questions about war.” – Kirkus
“This thought-provoking book is both welcome and imperative.” – Booklist * (starred review).
"Rather than attempting to sway the reader, it offers awareness." - VOYA
“Tightly wound and compelling ... appropriate for an older middle school and high school audience. VERDICT: Highly recommended.” – School Library Journal
Bio: Todd was born in New York City. When he was young his parents moved to Roslyn Heights, New York (Long Island). Todd went to the I.U. Willets Elementary school and then attended the Wheatley School for junior high and high school. His best subjects were math and science. He also liked to read, but he had trouble with spelling and grammar, and didn't do well in English. His favorite sports were tennis, skiing and fishing. Todd went to college at New York University for a few years, and then dropped out. He lived on a commune, then lived in Europe where he was a street musician.
All the while, Todd wrote songs and poems and lots of letters to his friends back home. Finally he decided to try being a writer. He returned to the United States and went to Beloit College where he studied literature and writing.
After college, Todd worked at the Middletown Times Herald-Record newspaper in Middletown, New York, and later at Compton Advertising in New York City. In 1978, Todd sold his first novel, Angel Dust Blues. He used the money to start the Dr. Wing Tip Shoo fortune cookie company. For the next 12 years, Todd sold more fortune cookies than books.
Todd now divides his time between writing books and speaking at schools and conferences. When he's at home, he likes to spend time with his children and dog, Cooper. He still likes to play tennis and ski, but his favorite new sport is surfing.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 12, 2011
Good for younger kiddos maybe 2nd and 3rd grade??
Nighttime: To scared to Sleep
Whispers in the dark: older brother has to share his room with younger sister when baby is born, she brings in her dolls and that makes brother mad. He torments dolls with his wrestler action figures, dolls tie hands of action figures behind their backs when kids are asleep.
Halloween Music: four boys are trick-or-treating and one has his ipod on and keeps wandering off. His friends decide to teach him a lesson and take him into a creepy old house, he wanders off again and meets a lady who offers him candy, she is really a ghost
Only a Dream: Girl keeps dreaming that there is a strange couple in her parent’s room instead of her parents, she goes in to check on them twice and finds her parents there and everything is okay. She has the dream again but is brave and stays in bed. In the am she gets up and goes to tell her parents how brave she was, she goes downstairs and the strange couple from her dreams is in her kitchen.
Witch Way: Family goes on an electronics free campout, kids complain the whole time, dad tells them a scary story, Hansel and Gretel, and then they all go to sleep. They are awakened in the night by a witchy laugh and they are all spooked. In the morning they hick back down the trail and smell gingerbread, when they pass an old abandoned house there are a pair of lederhosen and a white scarf (Hansel and Gretel apparel) on the front step.
It’s just Wallpaper: scene on the wallpaper of girl’s bedroom comes true, boy pushes girl off her bike and takes it
Don’t sleep over: Girl is having a slumber party and wants to borrow another girl’s karaoke machine but her mother makes her invite the girl. The rest of the girls are mean to Dana and she leaves crying. In the middle of the night the karaoke machine starts tormenting the girls and no matter what they do, they cannot turn it off.
The Nicest Babysitter in the world: kids have babysitter who lets them eat ice cream for dinner, watch lots of TV and talk about how they want to get back at the bully down the street. The next day the bully is hurt and the picture of the babysitter turns into the picture of a witch.
Nighttime: Too Dark to See
The Thing under the bed: little girl is scared of thing under her bed, her brother makes fun of her. One night he hides under the bed and makes sounds to scare her. When she jumps up and runs out of the room, the brother can’t get out from under the bed because something grabs him
The Open Door: girl is scared and wants her parents to close her closet door. Her father tries to reason with her and her mother backs her up saying she has to have her closet door shut as well and commenting on the father’s need to make sure the first floor doors are shut as well as the garage. The next morning they wake up to find all the doors in the house open.
The Silver Ghost: boy goes to visit his cousin in the country, they go out after dark to look for owls, they are separated and the boy sees a phantom train and engineer.
What’s Behind You?: little girl gets up in the middle of the night to get a snack, each time she goes to the kitchen, her dog follows to keep her safe. She has a bad dream that the dog is hurt but when she wakes up, she goes to get her snack with her dog just as usual. When she wakes in the morning she finds out her dream happened and the dog was at the vet during her snack run the night before.
Gameboy: boy plays video games all the time until he ends up in the game and his parents unwittedly turn him off.
Dead End: boys try to goad each other into going into dead end road, it turns out to be a burial ground with skeletons buried just 6 inches under the surface.
A Safe Place to Stay: family is on a road trip are close to running out of gas, stay in motel wake in am and go to gas station, as they pass by where they stayed the nigh before it is closed due to fire
Dance Lesson: kid has to take dance lessons, last one is a real dance, he doesn’t want to ask a girl to dance but a new girl comes in and he likes her so he asks her, they dance and then when he leaves her to get punch she disappears, no one else saw her.
Nighttime: Too Afraid to Scream
Phantom Text Messager Girl makes bad decisions and her cell phone texts her good advice and then saves her life when she is crossing the street
Black Cat Girl and her family move to new town and she still has not made friends to hang out with, neighbor says her black cat is bad luck but when the cat sneezes her mom tells her that is good luck that night there is an ice storm and all the power goes out on the street except girl’s house, lots of people come over and everyone has a good time
The face in the flames camp councilor tells girls that if you see a face in the flames it is the last person you lied to, mean girl creates a secret club and won’t let two girls join, one asks why she is not invited and mean girl lies to her, next campfire she sees the girl’s face in the flames and in the flames of someone’s birthday candles. Mean girl asks counselor how to get rid of face and counselor says she just has to promise to be nice and not to lie, she does and the next fire mean girl sees her own face in the flames.
The Skeleton’s Foot Girl goes camping with her parents, they find a skeleton but it is missing its right foot, there is a full moon and the skeleton comes looking for the foot which is under the girl’s tent
Track 13 Mother and daughter are rude and continue to complain and treat people badly feeling they deserve better treatment than others, train station does not have their reservation but conductor gives them tickets for a horrible ride on a train, when it is over they complain that they did not ask for that and he tells them they got what they deserved
The hitchhikers girl and family are going up to a cabin in a lake, rain starts to fall, they see a woman and little boy on the road and the mother wants to stop and pick them up but the father doesn’t because they have their child with them, they leave them on the side of the road, when they get to the cabin the caretakers says other guests have seen the pair, they are ghosts, and they are staying in cabin #1
Hush Little Babies family moves into a larger house when twins are born, a boy died in the house and when twins cry he goes in to comfort them
Nighttime: To scared to Sleep
Whispers in the dark: older brother has to share his room with younger sister when baby is born, she brings in her dolls and that makes brother mad. He torments dolls with his wrestler action figures, dolls tie hands of action figures behind their backs when kids are asleep.
Halloween Music: four boys are trick-or-treating and one has his ipod on and keeps wandering off. His friends decide to teach him a lesson and take him into a creepy old house, he wanders off again and meets a lady who offers him candy, she is really a ghost
Only a Dream: Girl keeps dreaming that there is a strange couple in her parent’s room instead of her parents, she goes in to check on them twice and finds her parents there and everything is okay. She has the dream again but is brave and stays in bed. In the am she gets up and goes to tell her parents how brave she was, she goes downstairs and the strange couple from her dreams is in her kitchen.
Witch Way: Family goes on an electronics free campout, kids complain the whole time, dad tells them a scary story, Hansel and Gretel, and then they all go to sleep. They are awakened in the night by a witchy laugh and they are all spooked. In the morning they hick back down the trail and smell gingerbread, when they pass an old abandoned house there are a pair of lederhosen and a white scarf (Hansel and Gretel apparel) on the front step.
It’s just Wallpaper: scene on the wallpaper of girl’s bedroom comes true, boy pushes girl off her bike and takes it
Don’t sleep over: Girl is having a slumber party and wants to borrow another girl’s karaoke machine but her mother makes her invite the girl. The rest of the girls are mean to Dana and she leaves crying. In the middle of the night the karaoke machine starts tormenting the girls and no matter what they do, they cannot turn it off.
The Nicest Babysitter in the world: kids have babysitter who lets them eat ice cream for dinner, watch lots of TV and talk about how they want to get back at the bully down the street. The next day the bully is hurt and the picture of the babysitter turns into the picture of a witch.
Nighttime: Too Dark to See
The Thing under the bed: little girl is scared of thing under her bed, her brother makes fun of her. One night he hides under the bed and makes sounds to scare her. When she jumps up and runs out of the room, the brother can’t get out from under the bed because something grabs him
The Open Door: girl is scared and wants her parents to close her closet door. Her father tries to reason with her and her mother backs her up saying she has to have her closet door shut as well and commenting on the father’s need to make sure the first floor doors are shut as well as the garage. The next morning they wake up to find all the doors in the house open.
The Silver Ghost: boy goes to visit his cousin in the country, they go out after dark to look for owls, they are separated and the boy sees a phantom train and engineer.
What’s Behind You?: little girl gets up in the middle of the night to get a snack, each time she goes to the kitchen, her dog follows to keep her safe. She has a bad dream that the dog is hurt but when she wakes up, she goes to get her snack with her dog just as usual. When she wakes in the morning she finds out her dream happened and the dog was at the vet during her snack run the night before.
Gameboy: boy plays video games all the time until he ends up in the game and his parents unwittedly turn him off.
Dead End: boys try to goad each other into going into dead end road, it turns out to be a burial ground with skeletons buried just 6 inches under the surface.
A Safe Place to Stay: family is on a road trip are close to running out of gas, stay in motel wake in am and go to gas station, as they pass by where they stayed the nigh before it is closed due to fire
Dance Lesson: kid has to take dance lessons, last one is a real dance, he doesn’t want to ask a girl to dance but a new girl comes in and he likes her so he asks her, they dance and then when he leaves her to get punch she disappears, no one else saw her.
Nighttime: Too Afraid to Scream
Phantom Text Messager Girl makes bad decisions and her cell phone texts her good advice and then saves her life when she is crossing the street
Black Cat Girl and her family move to new town and she still has not made friends to hang out with, neighbor says her black cat is bad luck but when the cat sneezes her mom tells her that is good luck that night there is an ice storm and all the power goes out on the street except girl’s house, lots of people come over and everyone has a good time
The face in the flames camp councilor tells girls that if you see a face in the flames it is the last person you lied to, mean girl creates a secret club and won’t let two girls join, one asks why she is not invited and mean girl lies to her, next campfire she sees the girl’s face in the flames and in the flames of someone’s birthday candles. Mean girl asks counselor how to get rid of face and counselor says she just has to promise to be nice and not to lie, she does and the next fire mean girl sees her own face in the flames.
The Skeleton’s Foot Girl goes camping with her parents, they find a skeleton but it is missing its right foot, there is a full moon and the skeleton comes looking for the foot which is under the girl’s tent
Track 13 Mother and daughter are rude and continue to complain and treat people badly feeling they deserve better treatment than others, train station does not have their reservation but conductor gives them tickets for a horrible ride on a train, when it is over they complain that they did not ask for that and he tells them they got what they deserved
The hitchhikers girl and family are going up to a cabin in a lake, rain starts to fall, they see a woman and little boy on the road and the mother wants to stop and pick them up but the father doesn’t because they have their child with them, they leave them on the side of the road, when they get to the cabin the caretakers says other guests have seen the pair, they are ghosts, and they are staying in cabin #1
Hush Little Babies family moves into a larger house when twins are born, a boy died in the house and when twins cry he goes in to comfort them
July 25, 2020
I read this book as an adult reader and I enjoyed it.I think the first story is the best but they are still enjoyable.
June 19, 2012
This was a Summer Reading Program selection, and our household gave it mixed reviews. My grade school kids liked the stories because they were creepy without being too scary. I thought the stories, while the concepts were original, lacked in the delivery. Would recommend for kids 5-10 years old only, as older kids would probably lose interest quickly.
October 31, 2008
What a fabulous collection of ghost and supernatural stories for the elementary child. They give me the creeps, too; best of all "each story teaches a lesson" as one of my students said today after we finished reading one aloud.
October 11, 2008
when you have kids, you have a tendency to read these books too. or have them read to you.
February 8, 2010
don;t be afraid
April 25, 2012
Good little stories. One was sad because a puppy died. The Face in the Flames was petty good too.
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February 23, 2015For my daughter - needed a note to remind her to find this book set!
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January 9, 2011i think these books are great
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews