Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King (1) (The Guardians) Hardcover – October 4, 2011

A beautifully-crafted, intriguing take on the origins of Santa Claus, painted with vivid detail and wondrous adventure that, though modern, will take you back to the classic fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.Since this is a children’s book, I am going to review it as such, which means my standards for what make it great are different – it’s rated on a scale of it’s own.I have been a huge fan of the movie Rise of the Guardians since it came out in 2012, but I only just found out last month that the movie had originated from a short series of books written by the outstanding William Joyce. Look him up – it’s likely he’s written and/or illustrated something that you recognize, such as Meet The Robinsons or Rolly Polly Olly. Of course, as soon as I found out about the Guardians books, the first one – this one – was in my shopping basket, checked, taxed, and shipped. I didn’t care if it was a children’s book, I needed to read it, and I was not disappointed.Like I said, I’ll be reviewing children’s books a bit differently, so I’m not going to do a whole Pro/Con thing – I’m just going to tell you about the book:In the first pages of Nicholas St. North, a moonbeam out fulfilling his duty of protecting children inadvertently releases Pitch, the dreaded Nightmare King. From there, we are introduced to the old wizard Ombric Shalazar, who has created an idyllic home, protected by magic, where curious children and their parents are free to explore and engage their curiosities, invent and learn things, all in the safety of their village of Santoff Claussen. But when the Nightmare King’s cruel fearlings break through the barriers and Pitch threatens to harm the children, Ombric fails to protect them and the task is passed on to Nicholas St. North, the King of Thieves and stranger to Santoff Claussen, guided there by a dream.This book is simple and straight-to-the-point, as children’s books are, but interwoven with such gorgeous imagery and a lilting narrative that has all the markers of a perfect bedtime story. The characters are human, relatable, with flaws but the desire and effort to become the best versions of themselves as they can possibly be. I especially love Pitch’s backstory, which was sadly absent in the film adaptation – it would have been really cool to see onscreen.I would, without a doubt, read this book (and the rest of the series, as soon as I can order them) to the kids I babysit. It shows the benefit in being a good person, and the benefit in belief. Oh, and the illustrations are gorgeous and old-fashion, again reminiscent of Andersen.Check out my full review of this and other novels on my book review blog! bookintroventure(dot)com

I really enjoyed this book: After watching the Rise of the Guardians film (again) this year around Christmas I discovered that it was based off of a book series. After diving into this book I was immediately engaged by the writing style and found the lore and mystery of the world very intriguing. North is a fun character, if not fully fleshed out like most novels would have their characters - however this book is mostly written in a style that feels like it's a tale being passed down.This book would be very good for a young reader, and would be certain to spark their imagination. The only reason I gave it a Four star is simply the price point alone. This is a very short book. I bought it digitally and - I must not be super familiar with Kindle for I didn't notice - but it was only ~120 pages on my tiny Kindle Paper White, which meant that I ended up reading the entire book in essentially the span that it took my toddler to nap. This isn't a problem - generally - with books, but at ~7.XX for a digital copy that ended up being a pretty poor deal for ~2ish hours; and was a disappointing surprise (though perhaps I should've somehow noticed the length of the book beforehand). I hope the rest of the series isn't this brief - for I genuinely liked the book and am interested in continuing reading.

I purchased this book for my son, age 9, as he really enjoyed Rise of the Guardians(movie). The age guidance on the book is 7-11, but you would be hard pressed to find a 7 year old who could read and understand this book if reading independently. My son loves the book since he really enjoys fantasy books with lots of action and adventure. This book fits his interests perfectly. We have read most of the book aloud together, alternating sections, and I’m glad we have. The word choice/vocabulary is extremely challenging providing opportunities for enriching discussion and expanding vocabulary. Even though it is listed as age 7-11, independent reading would really be grade 4 at the earliest, appropriate to grade 7. I would assume middle school aged children would not be interested in the subject matter, while the writing itself is most appropriate for middle school age. The guided reading level is W, which is typically grade 6. In my opinion, the best fit for independent reading would be a late elementary aged student who is a strong reader, but the book could be used for guided reading to down to grade 3(strong reader). Struggling readers will have difficulty with this book largely due to word choice. The writing is appropriate for middle level, but the interest level will wane with the years.

I bought this book as a present for my 9 yr old daughter to go with the DVD Rise of the Guardians. We saw the film and I found out that this book was the basis for the film. It is beautifully illustrated and the story is lovely. My daughter loves this and has already read it several times.There are several other books written by Joyce in the same vein which are also fabulous.

this is a beautiful book and a lovely story that is really nicely illustrated. It is a pleasure to read and my granddaughter aged 7 loves it. It arrived on time and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in children's books as apart from a good story it also has a very good lesson in for children to understand.

A great Christmas story but also and time of the year

I bought this for my daughter and she loved it top drawer book quality was fantastic and she couldn't put it down well pleased

Prompt and as described