Strangely beautiful fare for precocious nyctophobes and -philes.
A young vampire who fears the Night (read: the dark) tries to do something about it.
Vampire Girl—who has ivory skin, a black topknot, and Mr. Spock–like ears—“dreams of conquering the Night,” depicted as a crescent-moon-faced shape-shifting figure. Vampire Girl sees the Night outside her window and calls out to her, but it’s fruitless, as “the Night is everywhere. / She hides in the barking of a dog, / at the bottom of a glass, / in the scribbles of a sleepless young man.” The Night is a trickster who “sheds small bits of herself” that Vampire Girl goes about collecting in a sack: There’s “a pillow sprouting fangs, two unanswered questions,” and so on. Eventually, Vampire Girl meets the Creatures of the Night, who could pass for middle-school-aged trick-or-treaters and who say that her “Dark Night of the Soul is missing,” but by this point readers will have come to understand that this is neither a Halloween story nor a traditional fear-of-the-dark tale but something far more unusual. Sticking with blacks, whites, somber purples, and soft oranges, Ruiz Johnson gamely and gracefully captures everything that González throws at her, including Vampire Girl’s effort to “catch” the Dark Night of the Soul after it springs from her mouth (it resembles a fuzzy black tadpole). Originally published in Spanish, this surreal story will resonate with mature kids and adults.
Strangely beautiful fare for precocious nyctophobes and -philes. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9781646147267
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
Fiber artists beware! Unnerving artistry and reality TV mix and meld in this fantastic cautionary tale.
Obsession claims an unlikely victim when a young mole gives absolutely everything for a chance at glitz and glory.
Nine-year-old Winona Mole is passionate about crocheting. Her favorite television program is an Is It Cake?–like show called Yarn Is Everything!, in which contestants create realistic replicas of objects through stitch alone. After a trip to a woolen arts museum, Winona sees the mysterious Spirit Hook, rumored to bestow powers “upon those willing to pay the price.” Later, Winona finds a seeming replica of that same crochet hook in her bag. Suddenly, her skills accelerate fantastically. Yet when she gets a chance to compete on Yarn Is Everything!, what starts as a passion turns into something darker. Reynolds walks that thin line between kid-appropriate and chilling with an aplomb worthy of his Twilight Zone influences. Winona’s descent into unhealthy fixation is matched by Brown’s telltale yarn fragments, trailing eerily from objects that should not be yarn-based. Crafters may find it odd that Reynolds opted for crocheting, not the more common knitting, as Winona’s métier. Even so, this lends the usual homey arts an effective creepiness, even as the increasing ridiculousness of the crocheted objects makes it sublimely silly as well.
Fiber artists beware! Unnerving artistry and reality TV mix and meld in this fantastic cautionary tale. (Chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781665961141
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair.
Fifth graders get into a hairy situation.
After an unnamed narrator’s full-page warning, readers dive right into a Wolver Hollow classroom. Mr. Noffler recounts the town legend about how, every Oct. 19, residents don fake mustaches and lock their doors. As the story goes, the late Bockius Beauregard was vaporized in an “unfortunate black powder incident,” but, somehow, his “magnificent mustache” survived to haunt the town. Once a year, the spectral ’stache searches for an exposed upper lip to rest upon. Is it real or superstition? Students Parker and Lucas—sole members of the Midnight Owl Detective Agency—decide to take the case and solve the mustache mystery. When they find that the book of legends they need for their research has been checked out from the library, they recruit the borrower: goth classmate Samantha von Oppelstein. Will the three of them be enough to take on the mustache and resolve its ghostly, unfinished business? Whether through ridiculous plot points or over-the-top descriptions, the comedy keeps coming in this first title in McGee’s new Night Frights series. A generous font and spacing make this quick-paced, 13-chapter story appealing to newly confident readers. Skaffa’s grayscale cartoon spot (and occasional full-page) illustrations help set the tone and accentuate the action. Though neither race or skin color is described in the text, images show Lucas and Samantha as light-skinned and Parker as dark-skinned.
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair. (maps) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8089-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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