Stinetinglers 3 and The Last Dragon on Mars

Stine, R. L. Stinetinglers 3
August 27, 2024 by Feiwel & Friends
Copy provided by the publisher

Alvin Schwatz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has an unholy hold over many of my students; while I still have the first edition 1980s copies that were in my library when I started working there, I've had to buy new editions to keep up with demand. Along with Lubar's scarier than you would expect Lawn Weenies books, San Souci's Dare to Be Scared and Short and Shivery collections, and compilations of different authors edited by Stine, (Scream and Scream Again, Fear, Nightmare Hour) these books have been the most popular scary short story collections that I have. Until Stinetinglers. 

Stine certainly is a master of the scary book, from the Goosebumps goofiness of evil lawn gnomes and brothers who turn into birds, to the more serious, young adult You May Now Kill the Bride, which also has great historical details. My students know this, and have been recommending these books to their friends, which has been easy, since the covers are also scary! This latest book has a few stories that veer more towards concerning science fiction, but there may still be fights over who gets to check it out first when this book hits my shelves. 

Once again, Stine prefaces these stories with the inspiration for them, and it's fascinating that many of these instances date to when Stine was a tween himself. I especially enjoyed the stories about a girl who wants to hang out with the school "Wolf pack" because she is a werewolf as well, the vacation that two kids take to their collector uncle's house, and the treehouse that is haunted by the owners of the shack that is used to create it. The stories about a dog from another dimension, experimental fish, and a boy who creates his own superhero seem to fall more into the science fiction realm. A couple are more fantasy, like a magic show at a birthday party that goes wrong, a wizard who isn't very good at magic, and a boy whose parents buy him a disastrous dream for his birthday. The one that I think my students will enjoy the most is the story of Greta and Kylie who like to make two minute horror videos in the local cemetery until the dead Becka appears and just wants to borrow Greta's body for one last walk! 

Most of my Fear Street books finally fell into ruin, but there's no lack of fresh new titles for the newer generation of Stine fans, whose parents may well have a box of moldering 1990s paperbacks at the back of a closet somewhere! 

Reintgen, Scott. The Last Dragon on Mars
October 1, 2024 by Aladdin

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Lunar Jones was born on Mars, but the entire society is crumbling. His parents are both dead, so he lives in the Martian Relocation Clinic House, where he is the de facto leader for younger kids. He's had only the most rudimentary education, and spends his time trying to scrounge for wreckage to sell in order to get supplies for his young charges. This becomes even more challenging when there is communication from Earth that they are, once again, cutting of shipments to Mars for a month. When a storm promises to uncover more wreckage, Lunar prepares to head out with his friend, and is not happy to find that Trey is in jail and he's sent his brother, Will. There's a particularly good find that Lunar hopes the storm will unearth, and while it does, the two boys are attacked by Rhodes de Born and his group while trying to retrieve it. They manage to make it to a cave for safety, but find that they have stumbles into a secret enclave. While humans can breathe the air on Mars, everything seems destined to kill them, due to a curse put on the planet by Ares, the dragon of Mars. Lunar's whole world operates on the fact that each planet is run by a dragon, but Gaia, the Earth dragon, sacrificed herself in order to create humans. The moons of the planets also have dragons, and they are subordinate to the planet dragons. Ares was killed, although Demos and Phobos, from his moons, are still around. Dragons also power a lot of the travel; each has a dragoon that can ride on the dragon, and the coded technology can also create spaceships that the dragons power. The secret enclave is run by General John Poppy, but operates outside of the government. A new dragon, Dread, has been created, and Poppy is keeping him secret while amassing a crew to eventually save Mars. This young crew has been training for a long time, but Dread picks Lunar to be his dragoon, creating a lot of ill will. Even though things are desperate on the planet, Lunar spends nine months training before Poppy reaches out to the lead dragoon, Anna North, who is the unofficial military leader. She's appalled that Poppy has kept this new dragon a secret, even if Dread seems capable of reversing the curse of Ares. Before long, another dragoon shows up. Dav Robinson is considered somewhat evil, but claims that he works just as hard for Mars as Anne North does. When Lunar finally discovers Dread's true origin, he and his crew must flee in order to keep Mars from devolving further into chaos. Can they manage to save their beloved, if troubled, home planet? There's definitely another book on the way. 

Strengths: Dragons are always a draw for middle grade readers, and the fact that this was set on Mars will also ensure that science fiction fans will take a look. The world building was good, and Lunar's plight ona failing planet gave him a lot of motivation to have adventures. The interpersonal relationships were a little more nuanced than some I have seen in middle grade lit, which worked well for this book. Will became a trusted ally, and while Poppy's crew that had been training for a long time were naturally resentful of Lunar, they weren't unnecessarily mean, and eventually worked well together. I loved that Lunar was smart enough to bring the two most trusted trainees on as deputy dragoons. The construct that each planet had a dragon was interesting, and while it was explained well, also counted on our suspension of disbelief. The fact that Earth was very distant and disinterested in what was going on on Mars was a good reflection on how space colonizing might actually play out in the future. I will NOT be going to live on Mars, no matter what Buzz Aldrin says, thank you very much. 
Weaknesses: I really wish this had been a stand alone that told us a little more about life on Mars before using the dragons to save it. This is a bit lengthy (almost 400 pages), and series books of this lengths are such hard sells in my particular library. A series of three books that are around 200 pages each works fairly well, but most students' attentions spans are no longer up to a behemouth of a series like Harry Potter. 
What I really think: This is a good choise for readers who enjoyed Emerson's Last Day on Mars, Sylvester's Minrs, McDougall's Mars Evacuees, Swiedler's In the Red, Rodkey's We're Not From Here, Warga's A Rover's Story, or Strickland's Mars: Year One, or Holm's The Lion of Mars.