47 pages • 1 hour read
J. A. WhiteNightbooks
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Food
Food acquires figurative significance throughout the text and functions as a motif that illuminates The Value of Friendship. Natacha controls her captives’ food supply, restricting them to basic items like oatmeal and peanut butter while she enjoys sumptuous meals prepared by Yasmin. This dynamic demonstrates how superior she feels: She does not look on the children as equals, and the food restrictions she places on them confirm this. Furthermore, despite Yasmin’s initial insistence that she doesn’t want friends anymore, she reveals her soft heart and compassion for Alex by the fact that she tells him how to survive and prepares food for him.
Likewise, Alex’s first overtures of friendship to Lenore consist of his offering her handfuls of Froot Loops, his favorite cereal. Despite the limited supply of this treat, Alex offers some to Lenore on multiple occasions, a kindness she is unused to and which persuades her to shift her loyalty from Natacha to the children. Offering Froot Loops to Lenore signals that Alex sees her as a potential friend, an equal, rather than as an underling whose comfort is irrelevant.
Natacha eventually shares stew that she prepared with Alex when she offers him the chance to be her friend rather than her captive. She says, “I made it special. Just for you” (263). She has never made herself emotionally vulnerable to him before because she saw him as her inferior; however, when Alex impresses her with his stories and tricks her as she tricked Aunt Gris, Natacha realizes they could be friends. Preparing his food and eating with him demonstrates her changed feelings toward him.
The Nightbooks
Alex’s notebooks are a symbol that emphasize The Universality of Weirdness and The Power of Storytelling. The story begins with Alex’s attempt to destroy his nightbooks which he feels embody, or symbolize, his personal “weirdness.” He feels that he is different from “other kids” and wishes he “could be more like them, but it’s not something [he] can control” (29). Yasmin’s appreciation of his stories is comforting to Alex, and her claim that everyone is weird in their own way is supported by her gift of a new composition book. She’s “covered it with pictures of everything that Alex loved: monsters and aliens, creepy clowns and killer dolls, spooky old houses and abandoned amusement parks” (293). He says it’s the nicest gift he’s ever gotten, and this is because it demonstrates Yasmin’s acceptance and admiration of the qualities he once tried to hide.
In addition, Alex’s one remaining nightbook—after the other two are destroyed by the shredder—literally saves the children’s lives when Aunt Gris pursues them into the building’s basement. When he “read[s] from his nightbook, [it] freez[es] the witch in her tracks” (288). She is so enthralled by the creepy sentences he shares that he and Yasmin are able to surprise and overpower her, pushing her into the boiler’s open door. The nightbook saves the children’s lives, demonstrating how powerful storytelling can be. It creates its own kind of magic, enough to subdue a powerful witch.
Candy, Unicorns, and Grandmas
Alex is lured to Natacha’s apartment by the sound of a favorite movie as well as the smell of fresh-baked pumpkin pie. Yasmin is enticed by the smell of a dish she used to prepare with her grandmother, convinced her sito would answer the door if she knocked, despite being deceased. Natacha was lured by the sight of a unicorn, her favorite fantasy creature, a fondness her parents supported by giving her a unicorn pin that became her most prized possession.
Natacha tells Alex that most children are tempted by the smell of their favorite food, but it’s more complex than this. When Alex and Yasmin first spy the candy cottage, he says, “Think about it—Natacha’s apartment is just like that house down there. Only instead of tempting kids with candy it uses whatever they love most. Unicorns. Scary movies. Grandmas” (253). These temptations demonstrate that what most entices children isn’t candy but, rather, the prospect of love, comfort, and acceptance—these qualities are what these temptations symbolize.
Alex and Yasmin realize that a cottage in the woods made of candy was, at one time, the most likely way to lure unsuspecting children. Hansel and Gretel, for example, were abandoned in the woods by their parents because there wasn’t enough food to feed the entire family. They had empty bellies and sad hearts, so a grandmotherly old woman living in a house made of candy would promise to fill their bellies and soothe their hurt feelings, appearing to offer the love and comfort they lacked at home. The apartment operates in the modern era in the same way, offering children things they associate with comfort and love to trap them.
