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Thursday, September 05, 2024

The Secret Dead Club and The Inscrutable Doctor Baer

Strong, Karen. The Secret Dead Club
August 20, 2024 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Wednesday has always seen ghosts, and has spent her childhood helping them move on, but when an evil ghost attacks her in Arizona, where she and her artist mother Olivia are living in a travel trailer, her mother decides it would be safer to come home to the Callahan House is Alton, Georgia. Wednesday's father is doing a medical residency in London, and her parents are divorced. The house was where Olivia grew up. She was raised by her grandmother, after her mother perished in a fire, and the grandmother worked as a spiritualist. The house has been haunted since the 1940s by Caleb Callahan, whose father was possessed by a ghost and killed Caleb and his sister, but Caleb is a banisher, who can dispatch ghosts. This is all news to Wednesday, who is understandably a bit shaken by the evil ghost experience. Normally, she would be fine seeing ghosts at school and in the neighborhood, but now she is wary of teacher Laura Tarkington, who was killed in a car accident, and Violet, who lived across the street and died of meningitis. The girls at school are friendly, and Miki Okada and Danni-Lynn Porter invite her to eat lunch with them. When the two figure out that Wednesday can see ghosts, they invite her to their secret group, which only discusses group business off school grounds. It's the "secret dead club" and they need Wednesday because they had a falling out with the previous medium, Alexa, who has warned Wednesday away from the group. Not only that, but Violet was the medium before that. Something is up with Violet's ghost, and the girls realize that she is trapped in her house, when the Leehans now live. Luckily, they are on vacation and Olivia's friend Jasmine is watching the house and has the keys. Will Wednesday and her friends be able to get rid of the evil ghost who has Violet in its clutches, and generally smooth over the problems with the local spirits?
Strengths: It goes without saying that if a middle grade character moves, chances are very good that it will be into a house that is haunted. I liked that this had a bit of a twist, with Callahan House being a home that had been in the family since 1966, with protections in place for paranormal activity because of the inherited predisposition towards being attuned to it. I was glad that Miki and Danni-Lynn were welcoming, even though they were still grieving their friend. The official book, on which the club members have to swear their allegiance, is Mary Downing Hahn's Wait Till Helen Comes! The mother and family friends were around enough when Wednesday needed them, but distracted enough that she could have a little freedom. This got a bit scary at the end, with murderous ghosts running rampant, but that's what my middle school students like. 
Weaknesses: It was a little odd that Wednesday called her mother Olivia, but I suppose that is the tradition in some families. Also, there was an intriguing bit dropped about Olivia's grandmother being one of the first Black owners of property in the neighborhood is 1966; I would have enjoyed learning more about this period in history and the experience of a neighborhood being integrated. 
What I really think: I don't think that I would buy this book for an elementary school; Caleb's death was fairly brutal, and I can see this being a bit much for younger readers. It's a great choice for morbid middle school readers who enjoyed Senf's The Clackity, Poblocki's Ghost Hunter's Daughteror Young's What Stays Buried.

Drozd, Jerzy. The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
September 3, 2024 by Iron Circus Comics
ARC provided by the publisher

Doctor Baer, a sentient teddy bear, runs a preserve for cursed magical creatures in the quintessential creepy Victorian mansion that broods under a constantly gloomy and overcast sky. He tries to be a good steward of these artifacts, and also cares deeply for the creatures attached to the relics, serving them foods that they like, giving them a place to roam with others of their kind, and keeping them safe from the forces of evil. He is frequently approached by opportunists like the traveling adventurers, a bear and bird, who want to sell him a werewolf's skull. The house is well guarded against those like Gallus and Wilhelmina, who wish to attack and do harm, but when the bumbling pig pickles, who styles himself a hero, wants to seek Doctor Baer's counsel about a cursed penny, getting his sidekick Taft, a giant tortoise, into the house takes so long that the wards are broken. Spirits escape, and Doctor Baer feels terrible. Pickles, on the other hand, doesn't quite realize the problems he has caused. Some of the elemental magic remains to help, caught in an interesting wand, but the doctor knows that he must retrieve the guardian stone and try to recapture the spirits in order to keep both them and the world safe. He must venture out of his destroyed house to hunt down Gallus. Pickles offers to help, and lacking other support, Baer accepts their offer. This sends the group into a treacherous journey into the Lost City of Terror, to the bottomed of Daemon's Deep, and up the Crags of Everlasting Ice to find fragments of the stone that has safeguarded Baer's menagerie. There are plenty of fights, close calls, and monsters to dispatch on this quest, but also secrets that will be unveiled that change the entire nature of the operation. At the end, what will Doctor Baer's purpose be?
Strengths: This is an ebullient and beautifully illustrated book that is not as grim as the initial pages might forebode. Yes, Doctor Baer is dealing with cursed artifacts, but he is meticulous in his care and trying his best to improve the quality of life of the spirits. Younger readers will love Pickles, since they will see themselves in his brash and impulsive style, and be amused by the parent-like reluctance of Taft to embark on random journeys. There's a well defined quest with many nods to traditional hero's journeys, but I appreciated the twist at the end. I was also glad that Doctor Baer made it home and, like Bilbo Baggins, was able to get a decent cup of tea. 
Weaknesses: I loved that the dedication includes a picture of the author at eleven and is for kids who need "what's said in these pages". Because of this, I tried to find some deep message and rather failed, no doubt because I am not actually eleven, and because graphic novels are not my format of choice. It is a purpose that I wish more authors would embrace, although in order to fill the needs of all of my students, I need more people who were nonreaders as tweens become authors! 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who want an epic fantasy in graphic novel format, like Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo: The Road to Epoli, or Camper and Gonzalez' Lowriders in Space trilogy. The author is from the Columbus area and there's a blurb from fellow Ohioan and legendary Bone author, Jeff Smith! 

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