March 5, 2024 by Scholastic Paperback
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Mario Galagos has moved to Philadelphia from Florida, where he has never seen snow. His new neighbors are Todd and Jewel Simms, and he's super excited to be traveling to Vermont over winter break to visit his new friends' grandparents. He even brings a snow blower so he can do snow sculpting. Tweety and MomMom are a little quirky, but it's nice to be away from the city, so Mario can put up with MomMom's constant barrage of stew and grandpa Tweety's strange stories. The cat, Firefly, is often on edge, and Tweety claims is is because of the goblins in the garden. Todd and Jewell brush this off, but after he is attacked by one in the garden, Mario takes the warnings seriously. Tweety has given each of the kids an amulet filled with nutmeg that he warns them to wear, since goblins are put to sleep by the aroma of the spice. As the days pass, Mario see Tweety eating birds in the garden, and is creeped out by the fact that when birds in his glass aviary die, he saves their feet. Mario also finds a lot of small green outfits knit by MomMom that seem to fit the goblins! When things goes badly wrong, Mario learns new things about the Simms... or did he know these things already?
Strengths: Are goblins scary? To me, these books are just sort of goofy, but to third graders, this might be scary. My own personal children were really frightened by Debbie Dadey's Bailey School Kids books. There is an undeniable appeal to these quick reads, and it is sort of nice that the series can be read out of order. Mario's experience is rather odd, but his character seems very grounded, because he is so enthralled with the concept of snow in Vermont. This somehow made the odd behavior of the grandparents seem all the creepier. There's a fun twist at the end.
Weaknesses: I'm not sure how this relates to the first book with Betty and Billy in the woods. Doesn't particularly matter, but it would be nice to be able to tell how the books in the series relate to one another. Also, the ending was a bit strange since the book is written in the first person. This is one of those instances where one just has to suspend disbelief to make the story work.
What I really think: These are not quite my favorite, but I'll definitely be buying most of this series. Stine's writing is always fast paced and easy to read, and I think that James Patterson has copied his cliff hanger chapter endings. Do think that the covers are not attractive, but they do embrace the style of the original 1990s titles.
Weaknesses: I'm not sure how this relates to the first book with Betty and Billy in the woods. Doesn't particularly matter, but it would be nice to be able to tell how the books in the series relate to one another. Also, the ending was a bit strange since the book is written in the first person. This is one of those instances where one just has to suspend disbelief to make the story work.
What I really think: These are not quite my favorite, but I'll definitely be buying most of this series. Stine's writing is always fast paced and easy to read, and I think that James Patterson has copied his cliff hanger chapter endings. Do think that the covers are not attractive, but they do embrace the style of the original 1990s titles.
March 5, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Reader
ARC provided by Young Adult Books Central
Ben Ripley is doing his best at beginning of the year exercises at spy school when he is blamed for blowing up the principal's office. It's really a plan by Erica and her family to get him to infiltrate SPYDER's spy school, and Ben suspects as much. First, though, he has a disastrous day back at his old middle school before SPYDER does approach him and whisks him away to their ultra secret and very posh training center in New Jersey. There, Ben is in a house with Nefarious, who is always playing video games, and Ashley, the 6th best gymnast in the US who has turned to a life of crime after her failure to make the Olympic gymnastics team. He learns some of SPYDER's ways, takes a bit of a liking to Ashley, and finally is contacted by Erica, who tells him that SPYDER is up to something, and it's his job to find out what. The what ends up involving a lot of bombs, counter spying, and some unpleasant reminders of Ben's past. Which side is offering Ben a better deal?
The graphic novel adaptations of this popular spy mystery series are very dense, both visually and textually, so they are all extremely close to the storyline. Often, adaptations gloss over a lot of the emotional journeys of the characters or background information, but that is not the case here. The illustration style is well suited to the tone of the text; it's not as peppy and cartoonish as many titles, but not as serious as others, which is a good balance considering that as hard as Ben tries, he often has some humorous fails.
While 2023 brought a lot more diversity in genres of graphic novels, there is still a marked lack of spy and mystery titles. Johnston's adaptations of Horowitz's Stormbreaker series, Riordan's first 39 Clues by Ethan Young, and Blasco and Springer's Enola Holmes reboot are some similar titles. Spy novels have been popular with middle grade readers for over twenty years, which isn't surprising given the number of similar adult books. Fans of Gibbs' novels will like these as a quick refresher, and I hope that new readers will be enticed to pick up the longer versions after reading the graphic novels.
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