The plot is hardly ever credible, but readers will be too scared to notice. And the best horror stories don’t need to make...
Some kids have been waiting their entire lives for a book about a floating eyeball, even if they didn’t know it. This is that book.
This is the kind of book that’s impossible to describe to a friend. Anyone who tries will sound like a small child describing a dream: This boy is in a cemetery. And he pricks his eye on top of a gravestone. And then his eye starts floating out of his head, and it’s flying around everywhere. And then the eye starts telling him to do things, only no one else can hear it. A five-word description might be better: It is a horror story. It has enough gross-out effects to appeal to R.L. Stine fans, and a few scenes near the end are frightening enough to scare full-grown adults. Like the classic Tales of the Crypt comics and Twilight Zone episodes, this is a story with no happy ending. Readers need to know that going in, since for several chapters in a row, it looks as though Jake and his friends might find a way to defeat the monsters. It’s important to remember the title of the book.
The plot is hardly ever credible, but readers will be too scared to notice. And the best horror stories don’t need to make any more sense than a dream—or a nightmare. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: June 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-9867914-7-5
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Star Crossed Press
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Eleven-year-old Griffin Bing is “the man with the plan.” If something needs doing, Griffin carefully plans a fix and his best friend Ben usually gets roped in as assistant. When the town council ignores his plan for a skate park on the grounds of the soon-to-be demolished Rockford House, Griffin plans a camp-out in the house. While there, he discovers a rare Babe Ruth baseball card. His family’s money worries are suddenly a thing of the past, until unscrupulous collectables dealer S. Wendell Palomino swindles him. Griffin and Ben plan to snatch the card back with a little help. Pet-lover Savannah whispers the blood-thirsty Doberman. Rock-climber “Pitch” takes care of scaling the house. Budding-actor Logan distracts the nosy neighbor. Computer-expert Melissa hacks Palomino’s e-mail and the house alarm. Little goes according to plan, but everything turns out all right in this improbable but fun romp by the prolific and always entertaining Korman. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-439-90344-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs.
Rejoice! 25 years later, Wayside School is still in session, and the children in Mrs. Jewls’ 30th-floor classroom haven’t changed a bit.
The surreal yet oddly educational nature of their misadventures hasn’t either. There are out-and-out rib ticklers, such as a spelling lesson featuring made-up words and a determined class effort to collect 1 million nail clippings. Additionally, mean queen Kathy steps through a mirror that turns her weirdly nice and she discovers that she likes it, a four-way friendship survives a dumpster dive after lost homework, and Mrs. Jewls makes sure that a long-threatened “Ultimate Test” allows every student to show off a special talent. Episodic though the 30 new chapters are, there are continuing elements that bind them—even to previous outings, such as the note to an elusive teacher Calvin has been carrying since Sideways Stories From Wayside School (1978) and finally delivers. Add to that plenty of deadpan dialogue (“Arithmetic makes my brain numb,” complains Dameon. “That’s why they’re called ‘numb-ers,’ ” explains D.J.) and a wild storm from the titular cloud that shuffles the school’s contents “like a deck of cards,” and Sachar once again dishes up a confection as scrambled and delicious as lunch lady Miss Mush’s improvised “Rainbow Stew.” Diversity is primarily conveyed in the illustrations.
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296538-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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