Welcome to Scare School (Scare School Diaries, book 1) by Jarrett Lerner (Aladdin, 144 pages, grades 1-4). Bash is one nervous ghost about starting Scare School, an institution that caters to monsters. His classmates are vampires, spiders, werewolves, and even a snot monster, a creature that scares Bash more than any of the others. He’s happily surprised to find a friend in Itsy, a spider who winds up as his roommate. Classes are tough, though, and the hardest one is his Creature Intensive with grouchy Mr. Crane, where Bash has to learn the skills specific to ghosts. If he’s not proficient by the end of the first two weeks, he’ll get sent home. With the help of Itsy and some other surprising supporters, Bash finds a way to get through it all and is ready to take on whatever else might come his way at Scare School.
Written in a diary format with lots of illustrations, this very unscary book will appeal to kids moving into longer chapter books. Despite being a ghost with some pretty unconventional classmates, Bash has experiences at school that kids will relate to. I’m happy this is billed as book 1, and I hope we won’t have long to wait for a sequel. Scare factor: Too small to detect.
The Night Librarian by Christopher Lincoln (Dial Books, 256 pages, grades 4-8). Twins Page and Turner Reed are alone a lot, with parents who travel all over the world and a nanny who likes to take a lot of time off. With not much better to do, they decide to go to the New York Public Library one day to find out how much their father’s rare copy of Dracula is worth. When the book goes missing at the library, they’re plunged into a wild series of adventures, guided by Night Librarian Ms. Literati, who shows them how fictional characters can be released from their books. Aided by Wonderland’s Alice, Jim Hawkins, Jack of beanstalk fame, and Tinkerbell, the team sets off on a mission to rescue the library from some of the evil characters who have managed to escape from their books. The final scene results in chaos and the destruction of the library…until H. G. Wells’s time machine turns things back again.
While not exactly scary, the black and purple palette of the nighttime library conjures up spookiness, offset by the fun adventures and opportunities to meet literary characters. Younger readers might need a little help straightening out who’s who, but the nonstop action, humor, and fun characters will appeal to kids right through middle school. Oldsters like myself will be inspired to learn that author Christopher Lincoln is publishing his debut graphic novel at the age of 71. Scare factor: Pretty low, mostly just a spooky atmosphere.
Read At Your Own Risk by Remy Lai (Henry Holt and Co., 160 pages, grades 3-6. Hannah recounts in a journal the story of how she has been cursed. It started when she and her friends went up to the school’s attic and played a Ouija board-like game to try to summon up spirits. Hannah tried to trick them, and as a result, it seems as though she’s been cursed. At first, there are small signs, like being pushed by invisible hands and skinning her knees, but soon things get more gory: a gash in her forehead, a tooth that mysteriously falls out, silverfish crawling through her gums and coming out of the gash. School rumor has it that she has eight days to break the curse–or else. By day eight, it seems as though everything is in a downward spiral, but there may be one last hope….
Wow, Remy Lai sure has changed since she created the cute and charming Pawcasso! Although there’s some humor and maybe even a little macabre charm, this story is a genuine horror tale. It’s a pretty quick read, thank goodness, because you won’t want to put it down! Kids who are looking for scary stories will be flocking to this one, for sure. Scare factor: Considerable.