l to r: Shannon Bramer (Credit: Linda Marie Stella) and Cindy Derby (Credit: Dana Patrick)

Shannon Bramer’s Nightmare Jones begins with a poem about the eponymous character who visits town with “a bit of blood on his shoe” and “a snag of branch in his hair,” setting the tone for a series of poems that are refreshingly dark, particularly for kids aged eight to 12 – formative ages when they become more independent and open to the nuances of life.

In “Chatterbox,” the epithet is personified in the character of a boy who has “a drawer full of teeth” and who talks to them: “His teeth listen / almost / like they love him.” Cindy Derby’s watercolour and charcoal illustrations sketch a dynamic portrait of a boy bent over his tooth with a big smile on his face, brimming with the vitality of a secret.

Like many poems in the collection, “Chatterbox” recalls the illicit darkness of childhood, when adult meanings are just out of reach and we are able to cherish scary parts of ourselves – a stance that Bramer wholly embraces throughout the collection.

In “The Scariest Word I Know,” almost all lines end with the word “home,” except two, which end with “don’t” and “go,” a poem that secretly recognizes family violence and that could bring solace to kids who are experiencing trouble at home. 

Illustration: Cindy Derby.

“Dollhouse Spiders” characterizes “Aunt Irene,” who keeps spiders as pets in a house where the piano tinkles at night. Paired with Derby’s intricate and atmospheric illustration of a dollhouse whose purples resonate off the page, these poems are perfect for Halloween – but they are a year-round festivity of the weird and unnerving.

“The Truth about Worms” opens with the violent thought of cutting a worm in half, and though a wood elf claims the worm is dead, the poem surprisingly resolves on a warmer note of acceptance: “Worm loves the earth / Earth is our Home.”

A few poems, such as “Four Seasons in a Witch’s Garden” and “Welcome to Persephone’s,” use the form of the seasons and a dining menu, respectively, to delight in wordplay and myths. Derby’s watercolours are breathtaking, particularly in the closing spreads, where a spider’s web is painted in so many gradients of blue, or in the closing poem, “Badlonely,” where Derby retains both the darkness and the light of sunset.

Nightmare Jones is a dark delight of storytelling poems that will feel like a gift to many kids who, like Bramer and Derby, are attuned to the gothic side of life.