By Debbie Fong
Chronicle Books, 2026
78 pages
978-1-7972-3043-6
Ages 5-8
Finding friends can be challenging when everyone seems to be out and about during the day while you follow a nocturnal schedule. Night owl Hester keeps busy with cake decorating, living-room exercise routines, work on her novel, and sewing projects, but sometimes she’s “a bit lonely.” So Hester concocts a plan to stay awake until the sun rises, when she’ll go out and meet others. To fight off the inevitable sleepiness she downs an energy drink, and then dons headphones playing loud music, but both attempts prove inadequate. When a friendly mole mentions the Midnight Crew, “a supersecret club that meets exclusively at night,” Hester learns of their symbol (a rounded cube) and, with the help of the wood sprites, finds the die image marked on a hidden door at the back of the library tree. At the bottom of a dark staircase Hester enters an inviting room filled with board and video games, crafts, bookcases, and lots of squishy beanbags. Three friends, a skunk, mole, and opossum, warmly welcome Hester to Game Night and invite her to join them, delighted that they can now play “all those four-player games!” As in the first entry in this woodland series, extra features at the opening and close of this easy graphic novel invite readers to spot hidden objects, identify day vs. night differences, locate a stuffed toy in a crowd scene, and draw Hester by following step-by-step instructions. ©2026 Cooperative Children’s Book Center