Another Night at the Museum

by Milan Trenc

Larry is a night guard at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He is also late for work. In his hurry to get out of the bathtub and to his job, he forgets things. Things like shutting off the faucet. . . .

What would happen if Larry’s bathtub caused the city to flood? What would become of the museum, particularly the fabulous creatures in the Ocean Room like the blue octopus and giant whale?

Join the creator of The Night at the Museum for more adventures inside a world that few ever get to experience—the mysterious world of a museum after the lights go out.

Genres: Picture Books, Fantasy, Adventure, Museums, Fiction, Animals, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2013

About the author

Milan Trenc (born 1962) is a Croatian illustrator, comics publisher, film director, novelist and educator.

Born in Zagreb, there Trenc first went to the School of Applied Arts, which is a high school, then studied film direction at the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts. While there, he started publishing comics and after graduation he worked at Zagreb Film, where he created The Blentons, an episode in the animated film The Game directed by Krešimir Zimonić. In 1985, Trenc became chief illustrator of Start magazine until 1991. In 1990, while still with Start, he made The Big Time, later shown at the London Film Festival. Throughout this time he was also publishing comics and illustrating the covers of national and international publications. He also wrote and directed Ghost Story, a film for Croatian TV.

Trenc left Start to move to New York City, where he published comic strips in Heavy Metal Magazine and illustrations in publications including The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and Fortune. He wrote and illustrated The Night at the Museum, a children's book set in the New York Museum of Natural Sciences and published in 1993 by Barrons Juvenile. The book was produced as a feature film in 2006 and subjected to a novelization by Leslie Goldman. In 2000, Trenc completed his own feature film Zen Stories. Since 2004, he has taught directing and animation at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts. Trenc has won awards from Print and the Society of Publication Designers for his illustrations in The New York Times.

Reviews

[stefiereads]

What a fun read.
I have not read the first book, and realized that the first book was the original idea for the movie Night at the Museum. I loved that movie!
Anyway, this book is like I said fun. The illustration is cute and the idea of it is so creative :)
Pretty sure kids at the young age will enjoy this book so much, at least I know my younger self would love love love this book.

[Samantha]

Larry is a night guard at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He enjoys a nice pre-work soak in the bathtub that almost makes him late for his shift. He arrives just in time, but forgot to turn off the water faucet in the bathroom.

What follows is a magical adventure in which the city floods, all the way up to the Statue of Liberty's torch! Larry and his daughter swim with prehistoric marine animals that escape from the museum as it sets sail. They work tirelessly to restore order to the museum and city by dawn.

Pencil, watercolors, and Photoshop illustrations.

Kid questions follow the story. PreK-2.

[Chiara]

It was okay, but there's better out there.

At first I thought it was a dream sequence, but no, I was reading the story as it was actually meant to be read.
Too nonsensical for my taste, but I think kids will find it entertaining.
Nice illustrations, lots of blue.

Suitable for ages 6-9.

[Andrew]

If your kids like the Ben Stiller movies, they'll like this sequel. Plus even the book answers some fun facts in the vein of "Could this really happen?"

[Miya Gaub]

This book uses dark hues and simple language to tell the story of a museum guard named Larry who is in charge of the night watch at the American Museum of National History. At the beginning of the story, Larry says good bye to his daughter Melissa and heads for work. However, his job is very unique because the artifacts at the museum come to life every night! As a giant octopus leaks water that floods New York, Melissa comes to save her father. The two work together to find the source of the flood and save the city before daylight. Then, they must put everything back in the museum the way it was before the adventure started. I enjoyed how the book showed famous landmarks in New York, as well as displayed artifacts that are in the museum. At the end of the book, there is a page for “Melissa’s Fact Book” where the author takes time to talk about what happened in the book that is realistic and what is fiction. This is a fun book for kids to read to learn about New York while being pulled through different areas of history in a story that also allows imagination to come to life.

[King Kimi]

Whimsical book that allows the reader to pretend the museum comes alive at night time. Very fun, short read.

[Jean Marie]

Another Night At The Museum, would be an excellent story for 7-9 year olds. This is a story of the museum night guard named Larry who does the night shift at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Children could connect with this if they have ever been to any sort of museum before and their experience with that. During his shift, Larry falls asleep and all the animals come to life. Suddenly Larry wakes up because he remembered he forgot to turn off his bathtub water which results in a flood of all of New York City. The museum ends up floating away throughout all of NYC. With the help of his daughter Melissa, they work to gather up all the animals who also help return them all back to the original location. They then swim to turn off the water from the bathtub of their apartment and get the animals back in their original places. This book also has a fact book at the end of the story to help explain different events that happened in the story for kids. This is a great way for kids to understand the actual idea of what leaving a bathtub faucet on would really be like, what the type of fish alive during the time of the dinosaurs were like, what a living fossil is and more! I think this is a fun book for children to enjoy and has many different discussion points to talk about.

I think this would be a great read aloud book for students because throughout the book, it documents different landmarks in New York City as well as multiple different animals. As a teacher I could introduce this book before teaching students about NYC and discussing different landmarks mentioned such as the museum itself, Central Park, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the Statue of Liberty! I could also have the students choose an animal that is pictured or mentioned in the book to do a project or report on for class. Most of the animals besides the monkeys, all survive by living in the water. This could be the introduction to a unit on animals who live in the ocean, or who survive in water. I also could introduce this before a lesson on the American Museum of Natural History. After finishing this specific unit I think most of the kids would enjoy watching the movie as well!

[Maddypictures]

Melissa and her dad Larry, a guard at the New York museum of Natural History, are in for a watery adventure when the museum comes to life and floods the city. Digitally altered watercolors. A wordy book. Potentially a good Father's Day selection.

[Alice]

All the things that can happen at night at the museum! This was fun and in the back of the book it gives you real facts about the animals! Fun one!

[Edward Sullivan]

Wild happenings at the American Museum of Natural History.

[Sharon]

What if the guard of the Ocean Hall at the American Museum of Natural History forgets to turn off the faucet in his bathtub. Oops!

[Rachel]

To wacky and disjointed for my tastes, but kids will love it.

[Lizzie]

I like the "real life" facts at the end, because they seem like real kid questions. Maybe a pre-field trip or Father's Day book.

[Karen Littlejohn]

Pair with nonfiction ocean books for first grade unit and also connect to Jason Chin's Coral Reef.

[Maysaloon Abu-Zaglan]

Love the 1st book more

[Jodie]

I had to continue reading the series after the first adventure. I had been meaning to pick them up for years, but I thought I would reread them now because they are perfect to share with my nephew.

[Karen]

This was a bit of a fun, nonsensical book. The illustration, and sometimes even the writing, made me think of Syd Hoff.

[Rani]

Fabulous exaggeration of flooding NY. Teachers can use it teach about #ClimateChange.