A fun choice for chapter-book readers who like legendary creatures.
The students of Class 4A end up in a vampire’s castle during a magical field trip.
Class 4A is no ordinary classroom. With Ms. Frogbottom and her magic map, there is never a dull moment. As this adventure opens, the kids are enjoying a night at science camp when a bat flies overhead. As the conversation inevitably turns to vampire bats and vampires, Ms. Frogbottom takes out her magic map to whisk them away on a memorable field trip. In a blink of an eye, the students find themselves in Transylvania. While at a cafe, they meet the groundskeeper of Bran Castle, the inspiration for the castle in Dracula. He offers them a special tour of the castle, which Ms. Frogbottom gladly accepts. Soon the kids meet Mr. Liliac, master of the castle, and that’s when things get really weird. Emma swears Mr. Liliac is a vampire because he had no reflection in the mirror—and then Ms. Frogbottom disappears….Narrated by fact-loving student Sofia, this third series installment reads like a chapter-book version of the Magic School Bus, introducing geography via local legends. More silly than scary, the story is a mixture of history, magic, and adventure. Laced throughout the text are both boxes with fast facts and black-and-white images. The students appear to be of different races, and Ms. Frogbottom is a woman of color.
A fun choice for chapter-book readers who like legendary creatures. (glossary) (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5403-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts.
What terrors lurk within your mouth? Jasper Rabbit knows.
“You have stumbled your way into the unknown.” The young bunny introduced in Reynolds and Brown’s Caldecott Honor–winning picture book, Creepy Carrots (2012), takes up Rod Serling’s mantle, and the fit is perfect. Mimicking an episode of The Twilight Zone, the book follows Charlie Marmot, an average kid with a penchant for the strange and unusual. He’s pleased when his tonsils become infected; maybe once they’re out he can take them to school for show and tell! That’s when bizarre things start to happen: Noises in the night. Slimy trails on his bedroom floor. And when Charlie goes in for his surgery, he’s told that the tonsils have disappeared from his throat; clearly something sinister is afoot. Those not yet ready for Goosebumps levels of horror will find this a welcome starter pack. Reynolds has perfected the tension he employed in his Creepy Tales! series, and partner in crime Brown imbues each illustration with both humor and a delicate undercurrent of dark foreshadowing. While the fleshy pink tonsils—the sole spot of color in this black-and-white world—aren’t outrageously gross, there’s something distinctly disgusting about them. And though the book stars cute, furry woodland creatures, the spooky surprise ending is 100% otherworldly—a marvelous moment of twisted logic.
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts. (Early chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781665961080
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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