Junior Novels
"I don't know. The vision ended."
This page is currently unfinished. Pardon the dust!
The junior novels were made for the target audience of the films, and often sold at the Scholastic Book Fair. While they are very faithful to the films, there are some details and plot beats that differ from the final prints slightly.
Night at the Museum
| Author | Leslie Goldman |
| Published | 2007 |
| Publisher | Barron's Educational Series |
| Publication Place | Hauppage, NY, United States |
| Page Count | 139 |
| Links | Amazon Digital Archive |
Synopsis
"Halt, dangly bells!"
This section contains major plot spoilers. Reader discretion advised!
Larry Daley isn't doing so well in his life: the past few years have been a mess, much like his apartment. Nick's room doesn't even have a door, there are papers and failed inventions strewn about, and Larry begins the book arguing with the cable company to get his TV back on. After successfully negotiation the return of his TV, and being reminded by his landlord that the rent is late, he runs off to a business meeting to pitch a restaurant idea. The pitch fails spectacularly, and Larry has to find a way to make his rent in two weeks or less.
The events of the plot are similar to the film from this point on. Rebecca is portrayed a bit more seriously, and the AMNH is not open when Larry arrives. A blue beetle is the first thing Larry sees come alive, but said beetle escapes the museum and turns to dust on the first night. Moments that appear in deleted scenes and bonus features are seen, such as Larry meeting Spitzer the Whale in the Ocean Life exhibit, going to Rebecca's brownstone, and Lewis and Clark boarding the bus. At the book's halfway mark, there are film stills on glossy pages that are accompanied by quotes from the book.
Details
- The Daleys are fans of the New York Rangers hockey team.[1]
- Larry's idea for a shabu-shabu restaurant is from an earlier version of the film, and the scene was actually filmed. It survives in the deleted scenes.[2]
- Larry used to work for Kinko's, the shipping company that would later become FedEx.[3] He was fired due to causing $80,000 of damage after a Jack-o-lantern candle set off the sprinklers.[7] This is counted as a misdemeanor on Larry's background check.[8]
- Erica's apartment is on 5th Avenue, which is in a very expensive part of New York City, with mansions, museums, and shopping districts all down the way.[4]
- Nick's hockey game takes place on Wollman Rink in Central Park.[5]
- Don works on Wall Street.[6]
- Cecil's surname is Frederick, not Fredericks.[9]
- Rexy's skull gets knocked off, and he just puts it right back on. This makes sense, considering the whole "throw the bone" thing.[10]
- No operator is called.[10]
- Christopher Columbus takes offense to being mistaken for Napoleon.[11]
- Attila is speaking Mongolian.[12] It is likely that Attila is being confused for Genghis Khan by Goldman.
- Both Ahkmenrah and the Tablet are kept behind pieces of Plexiglas during night hours.[13]
- The Mayans use a powder-based poison on their projectiles that makes Larry sleepy as well as numbing him.[14]
- Teddy's hunt is of the mammoth.[15]
- The night guard position comes with a comprehensive dental insurance plan.[16]
- Jedediah is confirmed by McPhee to be Jedediah Strong Smith.[17]
- Nick is ten.[18] If this is to be assumed for the rest of the films, he is 13 in 2009 during BOTS, and 18 in KRA and SOTT. This is upheld by him saying he is 18 in KRA.
- Larry brings some of Nick's old baby toys to the museum, including the keys Dexter steals on the second night.[19]
- The Tablet says the names of Egyptian gods when it activates: "Thoth. Horus. Ra."[20]
- Jedediah's exhibit is in Utah, but Octavius and his soldiers believe it to be Carthage.[21]
- The Romans participate in post-meal vomiting,[22] something that never happened in real life. The vomitorium is an entrance to a colosseum or public space, not a room in which one vomits up food.
- Larry refused to ask for directions, which contributed to his and Erica's divorce.[22]
- Jed's guns work.[23]
- McPhee does not fire Larry in front of Nick and his friends, only chastises him.[24]
- Ahkmenrah was gagged inside the sarcophagus. Larry and Nick help unwrap him.[25]
- Attila wants to rip Larry apart because he sees him as an authority figure, which he has disdain for. This is framed as him "sticking it to the man".[26]
- Ahkmenrah is referred to as King.[27]
- Cecil is perfectly willing to abandon Reginald and Gus for his own gain.[28]
- Ahkmenrah and Sacajawea don clothing from the lost and found. Ahk wears a blue hoodie and "moon boots", and Sacajawea wears a New Jersey Devils jersey and Uggs.[29]
- Teddy's horse is named Lucky, rather than Little Texas.[30]
- The fact about the money-carrying tax horses is omitted, replaced with Cecil almost crashing into a fence.[31]
- Ahkmenrah cannot read. This is explained by him having someone read to him, and skipping his classes.[32]
- The old guards are rehired as nighttime janitors that help keep the museum clean after the exhibits' antics.[33]
- Rebecca teaches Ahkmenrah to read, in exchange for him proofreading her completed dissertation.[34]
Characters
| Character | Presence | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Delores | NATM | The customer service rep Larry speaks to in order to get his cable turned back on. In the few pages where she is mentioned, she doesn't speak, but she does turn Larry's cable back on. |
| Miguel | NATM | Larry's super (aka landlord). An apparent fan of the band Gipsy Kings, kind enough to let Larry live in his apartment for two months without paying the rent. |
| Gabe | NATM | The doorman to Erica's apartment building. |
References
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