The Night Animals by Sarah Ann Juckes
Big Book Award 2024 shortlister:
Uncover the ghost animals within in this moving and uplifting story about finding help where you need it, from the highly acclaimed author and illustrator of The Hunt for the Nightingale.
Nora’s mum has good days and bad days, but the bad days are getting worse. It’s been just the two of them for always, and they don’t need anyone else. When the rainbow-shimmering ghost animals Nora used to see when she was small start to reappear, she’s convinced that they hold all the answers. Along with new friend Kwame, Nora follows a glittering ghostly fox, hare, raven and otter on the adventure of a lifetime, helping her to find the strength she needs to help her family.
In a heartbreaking and hopeful narrative, Sarah Ann Juckes’ stunning novel, illustrated by the award-winning Sharon King-Chai sees a brave young girl face down her ghosts.
Published by Simon & Schuster
About the author
Sarah Ann Juckes writes books for young people. Her YA debut Outside (Penguin) was nominated for the Carnegie Medal Award 2020, shortlisted for Mslexia’s Children’s Novel Award, and longlisted for the Bath Novel Award. Her second YA novel, The World Between Us was published in March 2021, and The Hunt for the Nightingale was her first Middle Grade Novel.
She works with writers from all over the world via Jericho Writers and is on the board for Creative Future – a charity supporting under-represented writers. You can often find her hibernating in her writing shed in East Sussex, with her cat.
59 responses to “The Night Animals by Sarah Ann Juckes”
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I really like all the detail that the author used and also I really loved the book. I read the book in 1 week and 4 days. I would rate it 4/6! If it was a movie I would watch it over and over for about 1000 times a day
I really like all of the detail that the author put in and also it shows emotion.
I wish this was a movie and if it was i would probably be the first to watch it.
I also rated it a 5/6!
This is my second favourite from the Bookfest!! I enjoyed it and I love how the author thought of some colourful animals it’s also heart-warming to me
This was my top second on my voting list, but I still think it’s a massively well made/created book, lovely book!
I loved this book! I really recommend this book, it is heartwarming
😃😃😃😃😃 amazing!
The BEST book on the shortlist, the BEST book on the longlist one of the best books EVER it is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good! 😀
I really like this book, I think Nora is very inspiring!
I give it a 10/10!
I have just fineshed this book it is AMAZING I love it :]
I thought this book was a really good book I would rate it 10/10
I believe this is the best book I have ever read, it really has a morral to it and the animals to explain that makes this story priceless. 🙂
It was quite boring but it was my friends who liked it, but not me. I’m into more comedy books you know? No? No, ok (cringe) hahahahahhhahah 6/10
A very beautiful and strange book its about a person who sees rainbow animals and it soothes them from the cold hard reality
Ted
10/10
The Night Animals wasn’t the best; I got really bored after a while. Good description out of all 3/103
Quite good but not my fave.
It was alright but not really my type of book but I can imagine somebody else could like it.
7/10
It was a bit boring so I give 4.5 rating
I love animals but this book made me love them more. The way it was written was very clever. It made me feel like I was in the book!!!!!
A heartwarming story, 100000/10. It is my favourite book!!! Also the illustrations are amazing!!!! I loved it soooo much !!
An outstanding book but really hard to get into but worth the read. If you like animals read this!!! Also 6/10 from me.
I rate a 9/10
This is such a good book. I really like chapter 2 it has such good detail too! I recommend this book.
In Night Animals there is a girl who goes through some hard times because her mom has PTSD, she has to stay at home so she doesn’t worry .She keeps finding colourful, beautiful animals who are rainbow. I rate this a 7/10.
Night Animals is good but I have read better books before. The story line was a little confusing but it was a nice book. I rate this book a 6/10
I’m not sure on this book because it starts great and has loads of descriptions but after when the crow gets involved it doesn’t really become as good as the start and gets very boring and it needs more descriptions about the last two animals.
This book was really good because it was a really emotional book with all the scenes like when Kwame’s grandpa was on the floor and at the end when all the characters met up and Nora got her bike back
Night Animals is pretty good but I have definitely read better books. If you are going to read this I recommend reading in sections one part being one section or just a goal of how much of it you’rE going to read otherwise you WILL lose interest. I started this book and found it very boring then it got better but I then I left it for a few days and the ending was boring because I left it. Overall I give it a 8/10.
Lovely book but it was a bit hard to follow and I kept jumping lines. The characters were good so it gets a 6/10.
The Night Animals is an amazing book I give it a 10/10
I did not like The Night Aanimals because it was very slow and dragged on a lot.
This was my favourite I think it was great book because it kept my interest throughout. I like the fact that at the end Nora found her grandma. I would rate it 100/100.
I think that Night Animals is a very good book, because it has a gripping story. I would rate it 9/10.
Night Animals is a good book and I would rate it 9.5/10
𝔸 𝕘𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕕𝕖𝕤𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕡𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕝𝕡 𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕦𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕘𝕙𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕞𝕒𝕝𝕤 𝕒𝕤 𝕨𝕖𝕝𝕝 𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪. 𝕆𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕀 𝕡𝕦𝕥 𝕚𝕥 𝕒𝕤 𝕒 9\10 𝕓𝕖𝕔𝕒𝕦𝕤𝕖 𝕚𝕥 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕘𝕖𝕥 𝕓𝕠𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕥 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕚𝕞𝕖𝕤.
This was a sad book it was very life like and it teaches a lesson never be afraid.
I really enjoyed this book. The illustrations were awesome and the story caught my interest. I would recommend this book and rate it 8/10.
This book is really good, the best animal is Fox. I give this book a wopping 9999999999/10
I really thought it was such a heartwarming story! I love the description of the characters
It was really good but some parts made me a bit sad. The best animal was the fox. I give it an 8/10
I love this book! The description was so good I felt like I was in the book. It really showed Nora’s feelings. I also loved the metaphors which brought the book to life. There is quite a lot of mystery but in the end it all comes together.
This book is my favourite so far. I would definitely recommend it. I also think the front cover is beautiful and intriguing. I hope this book does well.
When I read this book I felt like I was really there right next to Nora and Kwame. They described the animals really well and when Kwame fell into the sea I actually felt kind of scared.Over all I really liked this book. 🙂
I loved this one; I love how it teaches you that you are not “fine.” It was heart warming! I highly recommend this one.
I love this book so so much; I give it a 7.5\10
This book felt so realistic and you can tell what emotions they are feeling when they are detailing their actions because it’s very clear we were so emotional while reading the bit where she found the fox and tells the story of her mother’s loneliness.
I love the book so so much and I recommend it so much and it’s a very good book. I think people who like animals and adventures will love this book too. My favourite part was when the main character thinks there’s an invisible fox! Definitely read this book!
I absolutely love The Night Animals. It is an amazing book! I love how her Mum has a mental illness because that shows how grown up Nora is. I also love the ending. I think its a really effective plot twist.
Good book, would recommend it.
Very good – 10/10 stars
I thought this book was very interesting, though it was quite sad in some places. I would really recommend it if you like a story with adventure, perseverance and friendships. I would give it a 7/10.
Very good book! I read this on the longlist – I loved how the different animals represented a different feeling/lesson. I would give it 10.1/10.
This book is a majestic adventure inside a book
I recommend this to anyone!! 10/10
Have fun reading!!!
The Night Animals is good with twists and turns that are unexpected and mysterious. I loved the big surprise at the end (but I won’t say anymore!).
This book was truly amazing, the ending was amazing. At the start of the story it was quite arduous, however as I went on it picked up. I recommend it was quite a sad story but its a good book.
The Night Animals was really good because it was very descriptive and had nice and clear paragraphs but it was also bad because it just introduced random characters in each part.
I could imagine the story in my head, it’s one of the best books in the collection! 7/10
Night Animals is very good and I really enjoyed it and finished it fast. It has BEAUTIFUL illustrations and it was overall really superb. 8.5/10
This book was full of excitement and surprises. I loved it so much, the illustrations blew me away of how detailed they are. I would recommend this book to people who love animals. It uses brilliant imagery!
““Amazing!”
“I felt very satisfied by the ending.”
“I can feel it happening to me, I loved the pictures of the animals on each chapter.”
“I felt like I was in it, when I’d finished it I wanted to read it again.”
“It was amazing – best book this year!”
It’s surprising to know about life’s and friendship’s ups and downs and good to show to not to be mean to people because of what is going on in their lives.