I read another one of the Nocturnals series last year. It was at a lower level than this one, but the type of story and flow of the story are the same. The Chestnut Challenge is Tracey Hecht’s attempt at doing a moral story about cheating. While the theme of to be a winner one does not cheat and to have fun when playing a game has been done before, this is a good addition.
The great part of the fact that there are higher levels in the early readers is that your child can grow with these characters. Plus, there are middle reader titles as well. (I became aware of them before I knew of the beginning readers but did not read them. I’ve since added to my TBR). While the stories of the early readers are stand-alone, I would guess it helps to have read them in order as I have read them out of order and there were a few holes for me. The Nocturnals: Moonlight Meeting seems to be the first for the early readers and The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions is first in the older series.
Josie Yee is the artist of The Chestnut Challenge and the other early readers. Others have done the cover art for the older books. Having only seen the covers of those, in many ways, the hardcover artwork of the older readers was stronger than The Chestnut Challenge as the bright, cute colors and images while friendly to the younger reader, can be a bit too “cute” for the older reader. However, they are the perfect pairing for this story to show the type of story you are getting. The older covers seem to have a slightly darker image in the hardcovers and the paper editions are a little softer, more like the early readers, but also not “young” to the eye.
Includes bonus Nocturnals fun facts and animal glossary.