Mild monster exposure for kids just dipping their toes in creepy.
Following Ghost Attack (2017), a new spooky encounter triggers Alex’s allergies.
White Alex is on the verge of setting a new kickball home-run record. But there’s a new (exceptionally pale) recess monitor that the kids nickname Gloomy Girl, and suddenly Alex can’t stop sneezing—explosions so big they don’t just impede his kickball game, but also bring on massive, sequential humiliations. Field day is coming up, and Alex’s plan to win a trophy with his kickball skills is jeopardized by his allergies. His white cousin Sarah attempts to talk to the monitor to straighten things out only to learn that Gloomy Girl can speak directly into minds and controls an army of rats. The cousins consult The Big Book of Monsters and follow up with internet research (there’s a savvy subplot on how to evaluate online sources), determining that she’s a vampire capable of being outside on cloudy days. But they need to solve the allergy fast—Alex’s parents want to come watch field day, and if his allergist mother sees him sneezing she could pull him from all sports. Lubar’s second in his horror-lite chapter-book series features a likable protagonist whose loopy problem is, though exaggerated, similar enough to real-world ones suffered by many kids to make him easy to connect to. The agreeably zany plot winds its way to a conclusion that even includes reconciliation with a school bully.
Mild monster exposure for kids just dipping their toes in creepy. (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-87349-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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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