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The Night of Wishes

The Night of Wishes

or The Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion

by Michael Ende, illustrated by Regina Kehn, translated from the German by Heike Schwarzbauer and Rick Takvorian

$16.95
$0.00 $16.95
Ages 5–8 Ages 8–12 Children's Literature
Format
From the author of The Neverending Story, a book that reminds us that “magic—be it good or bad—is no simple matter.”

It's New Year’s Eve at the Villa Nightmare but Beelzebub Preposteror is in no mood for celebration. As the Shadow Sorcery Minister, Preposteror has a duty to perform a certain number of evil deeds in service to the Minister of Pitch Darkness. But this year, to his horror, he’s nowhere near meeting that quota. Preposteror has all but given up when who should make an unexpected visit but his aunt, the witch Tyrannia Vampirella. She has come with a diabolical proposal that just might be the solution to Preposterer’s dilemma: together they will brew the fabled Notion Potion, “one of the most ancient and powerful evil spells in the universe,” and their every evil wish will be granted.

The only thing that stands in their way is a most unlikely team—a cat named Mauricio di Mauro and a raven known as Jacob Scribble, who have just hours to thwart the plans of their sorcerer masters and save the world from destruction. michael ende

Additional Book Information

Series: NYRB Kids
ISBN: 9781681371887
Pages: 224
Publication Date:

Praise

Good confronts evil in a comic adventure spiced with rambunctious wordplay and deepened by allusions to the world’s real afflictions. Clever and highly imaginative.
—Kirkus Reviews

A potent dose of comic fantasy, bubbling over with clever wordplay and slapstick incidents, and spiked with verse.
—Publishers Weekly

Envy the parents who get to read it aloud at bedtime, facing the challenge of voicing larger-than-life characters…Ende revels in zany details and little asides. The tone of amused horror is well sustained in this playful translation…Amid the gags comes meaning, particularly when a cat arrives at a new understanding of his life, and when we witness the destruction of nature. It all ends in an operatic aria. And why not? Michael Ende also likes to keep his readers thinking.
—Eileen Battersby, TLS

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