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SCARIEST STORIES EVER TOLD

Name: SCARIEST STORIES EVER TOLD
Author: Roberta Simpson Brown
ISBN: 978-1-939160-99-7

by Roberta Simpson Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 2016

“Mom, there’s an eye in the sink.” Read on if you dare.

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A new collection of original short chillers just right for sharing with unsuspecting middle graders.

Brown, a prolific composer and performer, expertly folds such familiar terror elements as malign ghosts and snatchers from the shadows, sudden fogs or storms, premonitions, and eerie local legends into contemporary American settings. Arranged beneath five rubrics, from “Something’s Not Safe at School” to “Better Not Mess with What’s Best Left Alone,” the 33 tales usually feature young people vanishing or coming to sudden ends through carelessness or not minding their elders. There are enough exceptions, though, for variety. There’s a vampire lad who attends a “Costume Party” disguised as a human boy (“No necking, now,” says his so-funny undead dad), an author and self-described “Bookworm” who eats her fans after a reading, and a solitary college grad who survives a home invasion thanks to a ghostly “Warning.” The author’s invention lags a bit in some entries toward the end, but her sober, matter-of-fact narrative style is just the ticket for keying up suspense. Even in the most gruesome tales (as in the one about an oversized bullfrog that delivers just deserts to a trio of frogs’-leg harvesters) she steers clear of explicit reference to gore and ichor. She seldom provides physical descriptions of her human victims, but their names suggest at least a bit of diversity.

“Mom, there’s an eye in the sink.” Read on if you dare. (Horror/short stories. 10-13)

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-939160-99-7

Page Count: 260

Publisher: August House

Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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A YEAR DOWN YONDER

From the Grandma Dowdel series , Vol. 2

by Richard Peck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2000

Year-round fun.

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Set in 1937 during the so-called “Roosevelt recession,” tight times compel Mary Alice, a Chicago girl, to move in with her grandmother, who lives in a tiny Illinois town so behind the times that it doesn’t “even have a picture show.”

This winning sequel takes place several years after A Long Way From Chicago (1998) leaves off, once again introducing the reader to Mary Alice, now 15, and her Grandma Dowdel, an indomitable, idiosyncratic woman who despite her hard-as-nails exterior is able to see her granddaughter with “eyes in the back of her heart.” Peck’s slice-of-life novel doesn’t have much in the way of a sustained plot; it could almost be a series of short stories strung together, but the narrative never flags, and the book, populated with distinctive, soulful characters who run the gamut from crazy to conventional, holds the reader’s interest throughout. And the vignettes, some involving a persnickety Grandma acting nasty while accomplishing a kindness, others in which she deflates an overblown ego or deals with a petty rivalry, are original and wildly funny. The arena may be a small hick town, but the battle for domination over that tiny turf is fierce, and Grandma Dowdel is a canny player for whom losing isn’t an option. The first-person narration is infused with rich, colorful language—“She was skinnier than a toothpick with termites”—and Mary Alice’s shrewd, prickly observations: “Anybody who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.”

Year-round fun. (Fiction. 11-13)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000

ISBN: 978-0-8037-2518-8

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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THE BEST MAN
by Richard Peck

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THE MOUSE WITH THE QUESTION MARK TAIL
by Richard Peck ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy

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SECRETS AT SEA
by Richard Peck illustrated by Kelly Murphy

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GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

From the Maggie Brooklyn Mysteries series

by Leslie Margolis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2010

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In this series debut, Maggie Sinclair tracks down a dognapper and solves a mystery about the noises in the walls of her Brooklyn brownstone apartment building. The 12-year-old heroine, who shares a middle name—Brooklyn—with her twin brother, Finn, is juggling two dogwalking jobs she’s keeping secret from her parents, and somehow she attracts the ire of the dogs’ former walker. Maggie tells her story in the first person—she’s self-possessed and likable, even when her clueless brother invites her ex–best friend, now something of an enemy, to their shared 12th birthday party. Maggie’s attention to details helps her to figure out why dogs seem to be disappearing and why there seem to be mice in the walls of her building, though astute readers will pick up on the solution to at least one mystery before Maggie solves it. There’s a brief nod to Nancy Drew, but the real tensions in this contemporary preteen story are more about friendship and boy crushes than skullduggery. Still, the setting is appealing, and Maggie is a smart and competent heroine whose personal life is just as interesting as—if not more than—her detective work. (Mystery. 10-13)