by Daren King ; illustrated by David Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2013
Kids will be happy to spend time in this particular haunted house.
Who’s afraid of the big, bad…spider?
When the ever-frightened Pamela Fraidy is stuck in the attic with a leggy spider, it’s up to her fellow phantoms to work together and set her free. Tabitha Tumbly, poltergeist, Charlie Vapor, a courteous specter who can walk through walls, and Wither, a fearlessly emotional poetry-writing ghost, successfully do so. They are just a few of the amicable spirits who reside in the old house, also populated by “still-alives” who are always mean—they trap ghosts by closing doors and scream and shake whenever ghosts try to communicate! After efforts to befriend the still-alives fail, the ghosts call in a ghoul to send them on their way. But how to get rid of the ghoul once the job is done? Hint: A living creature with eight legs may hold the answer. Playful dialogue, gentle suspense, childlike characters, appealing black-and-white spot and full-page illustrations as well as an array of comic misunderstandings and themes of loyalty and friendship blend together nicely here in a chapter book that young readers will doubtlessly enjoy. Though the plot is a trifle thin and fragmented, even reluctant readers will giggle their way through as they see that misbehavior is often motivated by fear and that even the scariest adversary has vulnerabilities.
Kids will be happy to spend time in this particular haunted house. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62365-026-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Mobius
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
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by Daren King & illustrated by David Roberts
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by Daren King ; illustrated by David Roberts
by Hannah Barnaby ; illustrated by Anoosha Syed ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2020
No need to be afraid of monsters after reading this sweet and unusual friendship story.
A boy discovers that monsters are real—and that one lives under his bed.
The monster and the boy—no names given—share a bedroom, but they have never met. The monster is nocturnal and has lived under the boy’s bed for many years; he knows the sound of the boy’s voice and loves the smell of his dirty socks. One night the boy’s mother reads her son a book about monsters, and she tells him that there is no such thing as monsters. Knowing this is untrue, the monster decides to introduce himself. Predictably, this doesn’t go as well as the monster expects, and when the boy screams, the monster swallows him in a panic. This is distressing for both the monster (who just lost his only friend) and the boy (who now finds himself trapped inside a stomach). Eventually the monster coughs the boy out—only to discover the boy is now grasshopper-sized. Humor ensues. In archly amusing fashion, the author breaks the fourth wall—this is marked by teal-colored page backgrounds—reassuring readers during potentially scary parts of the book, filling in background details, or collegially including them in aspects of the storytelling. Teal-flecked grayscale cartoons appear on almost every page, making this a solid choice for new independent readers. As depicted on the cover, the boy has tightly coiled brown curls and pink skin.
No need to be afraid of monsters after reading this sweet and unusual friendship story. (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21783-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Godwin Books
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
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by Hannah Barnaby ; illustrated by João Fazenda
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by Hannah Barnaby ; illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon
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by Hannah Barnaby ; illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf
by Lucille Colandro ; illustrated by Jared D. Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 2018
Series fans won’t be disappointed, but young readers and listeners who know only the original ditty may find this a touch...
Having eaten pretty much everything on land in 13 previous versions of the classic song, Colandro’s capaciously stomached oldster goes to sea.
Once again the original cumulative rhyme’s naturalistic aspects are dispensed with, so that not only doesn’t the old lady die, but neither do any of the creatures she consumes. Instead, the titular shark “left no mark,” a squid follows down the hatch to “float with the shark,” a fish to “dance with the squid,” an eel to “brighten the fish” (with “fluorescent light!” as a subsequent line explains), and so on—until at the end it’s revealed to be all pretending anyway on a visit to an aquarium. Likewise, though Lee outfits the bespectacled binge-eater with a finny tail and the requisite bra for most of the extended episode, she regains human feet and garb at the end. In the illustrations, the old lady and one of the two children who accompany her are pink-skinned; the other has frizzy hair and an amber complexion. A set of nature notes on the featured victims and a nautical seek-and-find that will send viewers back to the earlier pictures modestly enhance this latest iteration.
Series fans won’t be disappointed, but young readers and listeners who know only the original ditty may find this a touch bland. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-12993-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
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by Lucille Colandro ; illustrated by Jared Lee
BOOK REVIEW
by Lucille Colandro ; illustrated by Jared Lee
BOOK REVIEW
by Lucille Colandro ; illustrated by Jared D. Lee
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