September 1, 2026 by Scholastic Inc.
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
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On Gideon's ninth birthday, his parents invite his entire class for a party, and since Gideon's uncle is their teacher, the kids are all forced to come. Gideon only cares about getting presents, and hanging out with his one friend, Shehan. He hates the other kids and just wants them to go home. He's not sure who gives him a teddy bear, named Juno, but it creeps him out. Without any buttons being pushed, it says things like "we're going to be best friends". Disappointed by his birthday and not enjoying the bear, he throws the bear into his messy closet. The next day, it is on his bed again, and he has nightmares. Fed up, he throws the bear in the garbage. Fast forward to Gideon's twelfth birthday, and his best friend is now Noah. He's demanded gift cards for his birthday, but his party is super lame. Afterwards, in a bag on his front porch, he finds a note that says "let's play", with a bit of fur. Things don't go well at school, and people play pranks on Gideon. He plays even worse pranks in retaliation, and things escalate. Of course, the bear is behind everything. The bear says that since Gideon ruined him, he is going to ruin Gideon. There are all manner of nasty, weird things that happen; rocks in Gideon's sandwich, garbage in his locker, and nighttime hallucinations. He buries the bear under concrete at a construction site and flushes it down the toilet limb by limb, but the bear returns. Desperate to find a way to get rid of the bear, Gideon goes through the list of gifts and guess that the bear came from Laure, a girl he treated badly. He asks her about the bear, and she confesses that the bear made her life difficult before she gave him away. What will it take for the bear to finally go away?
Strengths: This would be a perfect horror book for a third grader. That age group is starting to have some friend drama, which usually involves not being friends with certain people, so this would offer a cautionary tale. Gideon is so over the top in his negative behavior that even the youngest readers will know they should not emulate him. The bear does things that are scary but not horrible... there are a lot of writhing maggots and nastiness, but no jump scares or terrifying moments. This had the feel of some R.L. Stine books where the brother and sister are fighting and one of the siblings gets turned into a monster. Goosebumps fans will like this one.
Weaknesses: I'm all for some life lessons, but this got to be overly didactic. I knew from the beginning that the only way Gideon to get rid of the bear was to apologize and to be nice to others.
What I really think: This is not my favorite title by this author, but his work is so popular with my students that someone is bound to ask for it. I'll purchase a copy, but the cover is so creepy that it will be hard to display!
Strengths: This would be a perfect horror book for a third grader. That age group is starting to have some friend drama, which usually involves not being friends with certain people, so this would offer a cautionary tale. Gideon is so over the top in his negative behavior that even the youngest readers will know they should not emulate him. The bear does things that are scary but not horrible... there are a lot of writhing maggots and nastiness, but no jump scares or terrifying moments. This had the feel of some R.L. Stine books where the brother and sister are fighting and one of the siblings gets turned into a monster. Goosebumps fans will like this one.
Weaknesses: I'm all for some life lessons, but this got to be overly didactic. I knew from the beginning that the only way Gideon to get rid of the bear was to apologize and to be nice to others.
What I really think: This is not my favorite title by this author, but his work is so popular with my students that someone is bound to ask for it. I'll purchase a copy, but the cover is so creepy that it will be hard to display!
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