Thanks to a mouth with a mind of its own, he also invites heartthrob neighbor Janae and 10 other schoolmates to ride to the upcoming middle school dance in a nonexistent limo. Meanwhile, Rob comments at length on the foibles of his weird family and friends just as he did in previous episodes and joins a book club that improbably reads Pinocchio aloud in just one session (he gets through Dracula with similar alacrity). This is particularly easy, as, aside from one school visit, the hybrid marionette/vampire is a reclusive wood biter who prefers to hide out in an empty house and turns more puppetlike with every compulsive fib. Occasional yuks and hints of an overarching plotline at the end aren’t enough to keep this phoned-in entry in a Wimpy Kid–knockoff series above ground.įollowing misadventures with Wonkenstein (2011) and Potterwookiee (2012), Rob takes the third literary-mashup action figure to emerge from his closet in stride. Ideal for any younger reader looking for bite-sized horror. There is a small amount of surface-level diversity among the cast. The full-page charcoal-style illustrations do provide a sense of ominous eeriness, however.
These are all a scare level appropriate for an upper-elementary audience, and the blunt writing means that the creepy factor is present more in the concepts themselves, which linger in the mind, than the actual telling, which is more matter-of-fact than spine-chilling. A few (especially one tale about crows and the privileges one gets from being part of a murder) seem to have more allegorical meanings. As in any collection, readers will have favorites and ones they skip upon rereading, but the cumulative effect here is successful and consistent.
The attempts at rhyme are less successful. While the majority of them are straightforward prose, one story is told through the format of the dialogue of a play pieced together from the memories of audience members after the cast and script disappeared. Rissi uses a variety of storytelling elements to make a collection that combines a timeless quality with contemporary forms, from a young girl playing an eternal game of hide-and-seek in a cornfield to a deadly chain letter sent via text. Twenty different entries, with atmospheric illustrations, create new yet classic-feeling tales for younger readers.
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