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  • Published: 15 October 2017
  • ISBN: 9781681371887
  • Imprint: NY Review Childrens
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $36.00

The Night of Wishes

or The Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion



A thrilling tale of sorcery and suspense by the best-selling author of The Neverending Story and Momo.

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.

  • Published: 15 October 2017
  • ISBN: 9781681371887
  • Imprint: NY Review Childrens
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $36.00

About the author

Michael Ende

Michael Ende (1929-1995) was post-war Germany's most successful writer of children's books. His father was a surrealist painter banned by the Nazi regime. Michael worked as an actor, film reviewer and political sketch writer and his first children's book was published in 1960. He was criticised for filling children's heads with escapist, fantasy stories instead of confronting them with the social realism that was believed in at the time. The attacks hurt him and he moved to Rome to live in 1971.

He wrote 30 books, not all were translated into English. His most successful titles in the UK are Momo and The Neverending Story, both of which were made into successful films.

Also by Michael Ende

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Praise for The Night of Wishes

"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." --Pointer/Kirkus Reviews

"The Night of Wishes is a kind of goofy Paradise Lost for middle-schoolers. You can't get much better than that." --The New York Times Book Review

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

"Makes for enjoyable and thought-provoking reading." --Los Angeles Times