January 14, 2025 by Union Square Kids
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Maya wakes up with a feeling of unnamed dread one morning. Her mother is at work, so she gets herself off to school and meets up with her friends Carla, Jason, and Tomas. The librarian, Mrs. Vargas, brings them all to the library, and tells them the regular teacher, Mrs. Miller, is absent, and Mr. Kumar will be running the class. The substitute starts them on a writing exercise, telling them they will be creating scary stories. He gives them some parameters and writing prompts, and the students get to work. Maya, who is frequently in trouble for speaking out of turn, notices a girl outside the library, who comes in to the room in a silver winter coat. She starts to work on the story, and when Maya points out that they are supposed to put their names on the papers, not the title of their work, the girl replies that Winter IS her name. Maya has trouble concentrating, but it is soon time for the stories to be shared. Tomas reads his Snow, and paints a grim tale of the students seeing a painting of creepy snowmen with their names on it. Maya feels like she is right there, seeing the painting change and the snowmen coming to life. Carla revisits a local legend of an abandoned factory by the canal, where children broke through the ice years ago and drowned, in Ice, and again, Maya feels this viscerally. Jason's Flood imagines a graveyard by a local park being flooded, and the graves disgorging the undead inhabitants. The children escape, but another rainstorm comes closer to the school and zombies again attack. Shaken, Maya shares her own creation; a spin on the Jack Frost stories her mother has told her. It is so real to her that she even accuses Winter of being the one who caused a scary part of the story. When Winter gets up to recite, all of the other tales come together, and her secret and creepy identity is revealed.
Strengths: I love that Barrington Stoke's titles have been brought to the US, since they specialize in dyslexia friendly titles. This is just around 100 pages, and has a nice, large font and plenty of white space on the page. Priestly does a lot of horror titles, and manages to create a good, creepy story but also modulate it for emerging readers. Maya isn't a bad kid, but her behavior makes her harder to be believed, so the others in the room think she's just being strange, instead of understanding that she is dealing with a dangerous ghost!
Weaknesses: There are only four children in the class? No matter. Too many characters can make the text harder to understand. I did find myself wondering if in the original, Mr. Kumar was called a "supply teacher" instead of a substitute. I think this is what substitutes are called in the UK, but US readers would not understand that at all!
What I really think: This is similar to this author's Union Square Kids Seven Ghosts, and will be popular with readers who like connected scary stories like the ones found in Poblocki's Tales to Keep You Up at Night, and Szpirglas' Book of Screams.
Weaknesses: There are only four children in the class? No matter. Too many characters can make the text harder to understand. I did find myself wondering if in the original, Mr. Kumar was called a "supply teacher" instead of a substitute. I think this is what substitutes are called in the UK, but US readers would not understand that at all!
What I really think: This is similar to this author's Union Square Kids Seven Ghosts, and will be popular with readers who like connected scary stories like the ones found in Poblocki's Tales to Keep You Up at Night, and Szpirglas' Book of Screams.
January 14, 2025 by Union Square Kids
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Rosie lives in London at the start of World War II, so is sent out of the city with her classmates and her teacher, Miss Baxter. The group ends up in a very picturesque village. Rosie isn't picked by a local resident until most of her classmates have already gone to homes, but Mrs. Taylor and her daughter Mary seem nice. Rosie is polite, and thanks them, just like her mother told her to. She settles into her new accomodations, but Mary takes an evil turn, tells her that she doesn't want her there, and then bites her own arm! Of course, her mother is alarmed, and ready to send Rosie back, but attributes the behavior to missing her mother. Mary tells Rosie that she thought about sending her away, but thinks it would be far more fun to torture her! Rosie tries to be brave, even though Mary tells all of the children of the village and the Evacuees not to talk to her. Rosie does see one friendly face, a girl swimming in a pond, but Mrs. Taylor is alarmed when Rosie asks if they might all swim there. The pond was the site of a witch execution that killed seven women years ago, and also the site of a drowning of a young girl when Mrs. Taylor was a child. When the girl in the pond asks Rosie to bring Mary to her, she's worried. Eventually, Mrs. Taylor tells her the real story; the girl who drowned was named Vera, and was Mrs. Taylor's best friend. The two fell out, and Vera wouldn't talk to Mrs. Taylor, so she dared Vera to swim in the pond. The girl ended up drowning, and Mrs. Taylor has always felt bad. Rosie tells her foster mother that Mary is with other children at the pond right now, planning to swim. The two rush there, and manage to save Mary, but Mrs. Taylor drowns. Rosie's mother comes from London to retrieve her, and on the way out of town, Rosie sees Vera and a young Mrs. Taylor together, and figures that Vera was just lonely all those years.
Strengths: Of all the scary ways that ghost could try to kill you, I think luring your into water and drowning you is probably the worst and scariest! I'm a huge fan of evacuee tales and often think about what it would have been like to have been one of the teachers sent out of London with the children. Makes ANYTHING that happens in my school day seem easier. Pairing a murderous ghost with this historical period was brilliant, and adding in Mary as this needlessly evil character makes it even better. I really enjoyed this one. This is a quick 100 page book, in a dyslexia friendly font, so great for emerging readers, like all of the Barrington Stoke books.
Weaknesses: While many young reader in the UK probably have heard of the Evacuees during WWII, it's not common knowledge in the US, and my readers might need a bit more information, unless they've read Albus' A Place to Hang the Moon or Bradley's The War That Saved My Life. Also, the ending is a tiny bit disturbing, since Mrs. Taylor does die, leaving Mary seemingly alone, just so she can keep a ghost company!
What I really think: If Brown's The Girl in the Lake or Hahn's Wait Til Helen Comes are too difficult for a reader who wants a good murderous, drowning ghost, this is a great choice to offer instead.
Weaknesses: While many young reader in the UK probably have heard of the Evacuees during WWII, it's not common knowledge in the US, and my readers might need a bit more information, unless they've read Albus' A Place to Hang the Moon or Bradley's The War That Saved My Life. Also, the ending is a tiny bit disturbing, since Mrs. Taylor does die, leaving Mary seemingly alone, just so she can keep a ghost company!
What I really think: If Brown's The Girl in the Lake or Hahn's Wait Til Helen Comes are too difficult for a reader who wants a good murderous, drowning ghost, this is a great choice to offer instead.
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