Nightmare Jones: Poems

Written by Shannon Bramer

Illustrated by Cindy Derby

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-946-3

56 pp.

Ages 9–12

October 2025

 

It's the time of year when the frightening and the strange are everywhere, whether in movies and stories, or in costumes and activities. Nightmare Jones will fit in beautifully with this collection of 28 poems which are steeped in darkness and will introduce unease and even reflection.

 

The titular poem, "Nightmare Jones," is about a scary swashbuckler who also dances. Other poems with chilling characters include "Chatterbox" about a collector of teeth, "Ghost in the Mirror," and "If She Was a Monster." And there are spiders and more spiders and insects and worms and more. 

Iridescent Flies and Beetles
of Dung and Doom
are Fools for Blood, come sing
inside me. Sing! Sing! Sing!
Di-dum-di 

(p. 47, from "The Strangest One")

From Nightmare Jones: Poems, written by Shannon Bramer, illustrated by Cindy Derby

Poet Shannon Bramer also writes of the scary things called feelings, whether it be about being lonely as in "Badlonely," that tenuous relationship with home ("The Scariest Word I Know"), or grief  as in "Sorrow." Shannon Bramer may present her poems to shake us up with the images she creates with her eloquent and powerful words, but she also makes us feel things that we might not want to feel. Still, her poems are elegant and sophisticated, and deep in their darkness and weightiness.

From Nightmare Jones: Poems, written by Shannon Bramer, illustrated by Cindy Derby

Several of Shannon Bramer's poems are prose poetry, and these are personal reflections about the moon ("Moon Song"), roses ("Loading Roses"), and a friend ("Button Rose"). Even in these she makes us feel for her insights and incidents.

From Nightmare Jones: Poems, written by Shannon Bramer, illustrated by Cindy Derby

San Francisco's Cindy Derby adds the right touch of ominousness, and she accomplishes this with a blend of powdered graphite, watercolour, gouache, colour burst powder, and pastels. With those mediums, the splattering and bleeding of colours just makes everything a little more unsettled.

 

Maybe you'll want to read these poems for Halloween, or maybe anytime you want a little chill, but Shannon Bramer deserves to have Nightmare Jones read throughout the year. Her words remind me of a deep pool that can be a little scary because of what might lurk beneath the surface, but there's a calm beauty that can be found within as well. I encourage you to take a dip.