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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Younger readers will wish that they could toss their heads…or at least that they knew someone who could.
A lonely zombie makes new friends just by being herself—on Halloween.
Quelled by Auntie Departed’s warnings, young Ghoulia has always confined her outdoor play to the walled grounds of Crumbling Manor…until she eavesdrops on some living children and learns about Halloween. Taking advantage of this perfect opportunity to fit in, she sneaks out with her albino greyhound (and gifted hairdresser), Tragedy, for some trick-or-treating. Hearing her name as “Julia,” the costumed children welcome her. But when they compete to see who’s the scariest, Ghoulia forgets herself and does her “special scary move,” tossing her head in the air and catching it in one hand. The children stand wide-eyed through no fewer than three illustrations on three successive pages—and then welcome her with wild delight and agree to keep her secret from the grown-ups. From then on they become regular visitors to Crumbling Manor. In full-color pictures that take up all or most of every page, Cantini depicts her undead urchin Tim Burton–style, with stitched lips, gray skin, and purple shadows beneath huge eyeballs (everyone else appears white—or sheet white). Assisted by suggestive labels (“Creaky steps”; “A spider visiting from the attic”; “Painting of Grandad Coffin”), the manorial setting has an Addams Family vibe and provides just the right spooky setting for this series opener. Halloween-themed activities are included in the backmatter.
Younger readers will wish that they could toss their heads…or at least that they knew someone who could. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3293-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Returning fans will be happy to see their friends, but this outing's unlikely to win them new ones.
In the second installment of the Binder of Doom series, readers will reconnect with Alexander Bopp, who leads the Super Secret Monster Patrol, a group of mutant children who protect the citizens of their beloved town of Stermont.
His friends Nikki and Rip rejoin him to add new monsters and adventures to their ever growing binder of monsters. As in series opener Brute-Cake (2019), Alexander and his friends attend the local library’s summer program, this time for “maker-camp.” They are assigned a Maker Challenge, in which each camper is to “make a machine that performs a helpful task”; meanwhile, mechanical equipment is being stolen all over Stermont. Unfortunately, the pacing and focus of the book hop all over the place. The titular boa constructor (a two-headed maker-minded snake and the culprit behind the thefts) is but one of many monsters introduced here, appearing more than two-thirds of the way through the story—just after the Machine Share-Time concludes the maker-camp plotline. (Rip’s “most dangerous” invention does come in handy at the climax.) The grayscale illustrations add visuals that will keep early readers engaged despite the erratic storyline; they depict Alexander with dark skin and puffy hair and Nikki and Rip with light skin. Monster trading cards are interleaved with the story.
Returning fans will be happy to see their friends, but this outing's unlikely to win them new ones. (Paranormal adventure. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-31469-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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