Stage Fright and Spy School Entrance Exam

Parris, Wendy. Stage Fright
September 17, 2024 by Delacorte Press
E ARC provided by Netgalley

Avery has moved from the Midwest to Philadelphia, and is glad to be going "home" for summer vacation. She's glad that she will be able to see her old friends and neighbors like Paige, Tyler, and Jaylen. Things get off to a bit of a rocky start when Paige doesn't meet her at the airport, especially when Paige has been off at the mall with Bethany Barnes, who bullied Avery when they were younger. Wanting to revisit the group's old stomping grounds, Avery suggests meeting at Tyler's treehouse, and is surprised that it has fallen into some disrepair. Her friends haven't been hanging out together, so they all try to think of an activity they can do together. Avery suggests their "Ridge Road Detective Club" game, but the others scoff that they are all too old for such nonsense, until Avery suggests breaking into the local Old Winter Playhouse, since it is the tenth anniversary of the death of the director's nine year old daughter. Sneaky out in the middle of the night is always interesting, and when the four get into the theater, there are some scary things that occur. There is a ghost light on the stage, and when they venture too far away, they see and hear eerie things. There is a skull that seems to follow them around, and after touching it, Tyler thinks that they are being surrounded by rats. Jaylen falls off the stage and breaks his ankle; of course, none of the children can get cell phone service. They hunker down to wait until morning, but Jaylen thinks that the walls are closing in on them. In between the spooky ghost manifestations, Avery gets caught up on some things her friends have been going. Paige and Jaylen kissed, even though the kids made a pact to always stay friends, and Paige is worried about her parents' pending divorce. Of course, the altered states of Tyler and Jaylen are even more concerning, as is being followed by menancing ghosts! When things get especially bad, there is a fire started, and the theater is badly damaged. The ghost is put to rest (I don't want to spoil some of the details!), the kids aren't blamed for the fire, and Avery is able to return to Philadelphia with the knowledge that even if she had stayed in her old neighborhood, her friendships still might have changed. 
Strengths: Friends changing in middle school and growing apart is definitely more scary (and more common) than viscious ghosts, and pairing the two popular topics is an inspired idea. While as a responsible adult, I can't condone children lying to caregivers and sneaking out in the middle of the night, there is a certain appeal to such activity when one is a tween. There's a good back story to the haunting of the theater, and a good variety of ghost menancing. This is a good length, and moves quickly, as any good killer ghost story should. 

Weaknesses: Like this author's Field of Screams, this is more gently scary than terrifying. Also, would people in Philadelphia make fun of a Midwestern accent? Aside from a friend from New Hampshire who once said I had a "nasal" accent (I mean, I did grow up close to Cleveland), I always labored under the delusion that the Midwest didn't have an accent. 
What I really think: This is a great choice for readers who have an interest in eerie books with theater connections and enjoyed Gonzalez's Fearless, Key's Twelfth, Schusterman's Olive and the Backstage Ghost or Freeman's Noah McNichol and the Backstage Ghost.

Gibbs, Stuart. Spy School Entrance Exam: A Spy School Book of Devious Word Searches, Clever Crosswords, Sly Sudoku, and Other Top Secret Puzzles! (Paperback)
September 24, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Clearly, this is not a book for a school library, given the amount of puzzles in it, but it would make an excellent gift for an avid SPY SCHOOL fan. In addition to the different puzzles, there is some introductory notes from the principal (heavily redacted, of course!), information about different characters, as they introduce a variety of puzzles, and a lot of illustrations in the style of the SPY SCHOOL graphic novels. I'm not a fan of puzzles, but they do have different levels of them, and they look fairly interesting. The one exception is the crossword puzzles. Creating proper crosswords is a difficult thing to do, and these are rather simplistic. There is also information about some codes. Answers and explanations are at the back.

I liked the explanation that the system had been hacked, so the school was going back to old school pencil and paper testing. If I had a paper ARC of this, I would have to have a contest for the winner, because I have a lot of readers who adore the series and would love to get their hands on this! This is 240 pages long, so not a short book, and worth the $11 price tag.