Night Buddies Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine
A boy…a red crocodile…a collection of magic whatchamacallits…and other truly inventive characters…
Night Buddies revolves around the nighttime adventures of a young boy named John, who is not ready to go to sleep, and a bright red crocodile named Crosley who turns up under John’s bed. As the stories in each book open, this unlikely pair sneaks out of John’s house using Crosley’s I-ain’t-here doodad, which makes them invisible to John’s parents. They embark on their Program, the Night Buddies word for Adventure, and make their way around the Borough chasing down enemies and cleaning up the mishaps at hand.
In the second book in the series, Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine, red crocodiles start popping up all over the city, creating confusion, committing crimes, and causing Crosley to go a little crazy at the sight of them. The impostors must be stopped, and Night Buddies John and Crosley are just the guys to stop them! Stakeouts and wild chases in a fantastic flying machine, far-out schemes to snare the imposters, and a never-ending supply of Crusted Crème Fro-Madge frozen yogurt make for one totally super night.
These adventures after lights-out will delight any young reader who relishes an adventure/fantasy in the wee hours of the night.
Nightbuddies, Impostors and One Far-Out Flying Machine is a Moonbeam Children’s Book Award Winner (Reading Skills/Literacy), a Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winner (Juvenile Fiction), a Finalist in Children’s Fiction in the 2013 USA Best Book Awards, and a winner of the Global Ebook Awards!
Reviews
“For young John Degraffenreidt, a sleepless night is no reason to fret when tossing and turning brings a bright red crocodile named Crosley out from under his bed. The impostors must be stopped, and Night Buddies John and Crosley are just the guys to stop them! Racing blimp stakeouts high in the sky, impostor traps organized with the help of a friend, and a never-ending supply of pineapple cheesecake frozen yogurt make for one totally super sleepless night. I not only found this book to be completely fun and entertaining to read, but very relatable. Kids will just love this funny and adventurous story. I can’t imagine a better bedtime book!”
— Diana Perry, Story Monsters Ink
“‘Night Buddies: Impostors and One Far out Flying Machine‘ by Sands Hetherington is a book about John Degraffenreidt and his crocodile friend Crosley as they go off on their wild night time adventures. When the iguanas begin impersonating Crosley, John and Crosley set forth to stop the iguanas before they go too far and destroy Crosley’s reputation beyond repair. I would recommend this book for people who like action and adventure. This book has a lot of both. I think people from 9-12 would enjoy this book the most, but people older or younger will also enjoy it. This is the second book in a series and there were a few references to the first book. I think I would have enjoyed the book even more if I had read the first book.”
— Review from Reader Views, Weldon (age 11)
“This is a wonderful and entertaining tale for children…It is amusing following Crosley and John on their adventure. They meet some interesting characters along the way.”
— Night Owl Reviews
“Sands Hetherington, with the able assistance of the imagination and enthusiasm of his young son John, have created a new and completely unforgettable and likable character in Crosley, a bright red crocodile who happens to dwell under the bed of the sleepless lad John Degraffenreidt, beginning what we can only hope will be an ongoing series of books under the title NIGHT BUDDIES. Together Crosley and John set out on a Program (Night Buddies’ term for ‘Adventure’), the purpose being to rid their world of enemies and solve conundrums. This go-round finds John and Crosley out to solve the mystery of imposters or look-alikes – too many red crocodiles doing bad things. Their antics include stakeouts and wild chases in a ridiculously impossible flying machine (beautifully illustrated on the cover by Jessica Love) and with the same wonderful typeface differences and page disorganization as the first book accompanying John, Crosley’s brother Crenwinkle and a new character – one Rodney Oglesby who owns and runs a sauerkraut and jellybean hot dog stand! Kids love these adventures because they are visual, inventive, engage the absurd, and still mix a level of adventure with anxiety regarding the antics of the players. It is another success for Sands Hetherington!”
— Grady Harp, Amazon.com Hall of Fame Reviewer
“Another great Night Buddies epic adventure and mystery, in an incredible, delicious word salad narrative style that absolutely keeps the pages turning. Quirky black and white illustrations add to the high interest and excitement, and language, language, language, complete with expressive, changing type fonts and wonderful made-up words, describe the indescribable…a fantastic series to engage, entertain, and educate young readers (ages 9 and up) effortlessly. Watch for Book 3 in this fun, fantastic series.”
— Midwest Book Review
“Night Buddies: Impostors and One Far-Out Flying Machine has all the right pieces for a great kids’ book: talking animals, cool inventions, and fun. Perhaps because [author] Sands Hetherington’s son played such a big part in creating the characters, it really does seem to capture the sense of fun that young boys so love, while at the same time catering to their fantasies of not really having to go to bed … [it’s] a fun work of fiction for kids that should keep them wondering till the last page.”
— Games Finds
“Stakeouts and wild chases in a fantastic flying machine, far-out schemes to snare the imposters, and a never-ending supply of Crusted Crème Fro-Madge frozen yogurt make for one totally super night. These adventures after lights-out will delight any young reader who relishes an adventure/fantasy in the wee hours of the night.”
— MyBookAddictionReviews ~ Reviews of Great and Not so Great Books
“I love the idea of the Night Buddies, a secret agent program to help kids get tired and go to sleep. The book had lots of humor in it and it is appropriate for kids of all ages. Even though the story has crimes being committed, they are things like stealing mothballs, creating messes, and other silly stuff. John and Crosley are great characters and they are fun to read about…I am looking forward to the next book in the series! Five out of five bookworms for this fun adventure!”
— This Kid Reviews Books
“My favorite part of the story was how imaginative it was. Children enjoy reading books and watching movies that let them dream and explore new worlds and new languages and I felt as though this story captured all the joys of a new adventure. The author even had a special language that is outlined in the beginning of the book and … I am certain a younger audience would have been constantly entertained … I give this story Four Stars!”
— Lynda Coker, Between the Pages
“The second I opened up the package with this book, my son scoffed it up. I immediately had him give it back, but in the process of me trying to read it for review, the book kept mysteriously disappearing. I would find him upside down, in a sleeping bag with a flashlight reading the book instead of going to sleep…The book is action packed and well thought out. My son and I definitely look forward to future books in the series. I give (and so does he) this book a 5 of 5 stars!”
— Athena Nagel, The Stuff of Success
“Jeeks! John Degraffenreidt and Crosley the red crocodile are back with a new adventure. In Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine, a case of evil Crosley impersonation leads the buddies across the night city, from underground hide-outs to aerial adventures. This book is packed with nonstop action, wacky inventions, allies and arch-rivals, rapid-fire dialogue, and the two best categories of kid-food: super-delicious and disgusting. Best of all is the pleasure of its language, fun to read and to read aloud. Any kid (even a grown-up one like me) will pick up its irresistible vocabulary, from Yerk! to Excelsior!”
— Lynne Barrett, award-winning author of Magpies and co-editor of Birth: A Literary Companion
“Sands Hetherington has done it again with the second Night Buddies book. This time Crosley and John find themselves on a not-so-normal program. Instead of solving some mystery like disappearing pineapple cheesecakes, they find themselves trying to find a red impostor. This wacky tale puts these two Night Buddies in some interesting situations any kid would dream of being in. The illustrations sprinkled throughout the book only help add to the imagination, and the unique verbiage helps to grow vocabulary. However, Crosley does warn you not to use some of the spellings in school as teachers may not like it. Can’t wait to see what Crosley gets John into on the next program!”
— VS Grenier, award-winning author of Babysitting Sugarpaw and World of Ink Network Radio Host
“Do you know what an imposter is? In this second book of a new series, John (no initial) Degraffenreidt, the young city kid who isn’t ready for bed yet, and his friend Crosley, a red crocodile, fresh from having solved the case of the missing cheesecakes, take on a new all-night ‘program,’ according to their Night Buddies contract, in which the two borrow a neat flying machine to investigate vandalism that’s being done all over town by a red crocodile. Could it be Crosley, or is it an impostor? Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine is a fun and satisfying story for kids of all ages who like to read mysteries.”
— Wayne S. Walker, Home School Book Review
“This is a cute children’s book. It would make a wonderful Christmas gift for little ones.”
– Mary Jackson, The Mary Reader
“More than twice the length of its predecessor with three hundred and nineteen pages, this paperback book has a colorful drawing of a boy and a red crocodile flying in a blimp over a city at nighttime on the front jacket. With the book’s plethora of intentional misspellings to emphasize diction, there is a fun warning page at the beginning stating not to spell the same words at school or on a test. There is also a one page explanation of uncommon words used by the Night Buddies and about a dozen black and white drawings by illustrator Love. The book is targeted as juvenile fiction with some slang but no profanity.”
– Conny Crisalli, Bookpleasures.com
Awards Won
