The School Is Alive!

May 1, 2014

Gr 1-3-Sam is Eerie Elementary's newest (and only) hall monitor. He figures it will be a boring job and probably one that earns him enemies. He doesn't count on the school itself being enemy number one. After nearly being swallowed by quicksand and then attacked by a fire hose, Sam is ready to find answers. Could the school be alive? Are all the students in danger, or is it just Sam the school wants? When a play draws all of Eerie Elementary together in one location, the school makes its move. The counterattack is up to Sam. Illustrations are done in a fuzzy outline style that makes them appear not quite solid. While they fit the spooky theme, a few of them are hazy enough to be slightly distracting. That small quibble aside, the text and art are a good match. Give this early chapter book to readers who want something scary but aren't ready for the "Goosebumps" or "Scream Street" series.-Kelly Roth, Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, GA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2014
Grades 1-3 Who wants to be the hall monitor at a school called Eerie Elementary? Not Sam Graves, that's for sure. He is a little embarrassed by the shiny orange sash he has to wear as he patrols the halls, but when the playground sand tries to eat him, and the school caretaker, Mr. Nakobi, tells him that it's Sam's job to keep the malevolent brick building in check, Sam can't tell whether Mr. Nakobi is crazyor he is. Dynamic, cartoonish illustrations amp up the action, and fun onomatopoeia provides atmosphere Pow! Pow! as a vending machine fires water bottles at Sam, and CHOMP! CHOMP! when a pile of metal folding chairs menaces the third-grade cast of Peter Pan. Sam's friends Antonio and Lucy are by his side (once he convinces them he hasn't lost his mind), but a sentient, evil school is not a peril to be taken lightly. Readers who relish the action of Dav Pilkey's Ricky Ricotta series and the just-beyond-safe scares of R. L. Stine's Rotten School titles may want to enroll at Eerie Elementary.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
For children ready for chapter books, this slightly spooky first series adventure involves a personified school that gobbles up kids. Sam, hall monitor hero, gradually figures out what's going on and what to do to save the day. Playground quicksand and a peanut butter explosion ("KA-BOOM!!!") are examples of the noisy, rollicking action enlivened in plentiful shadowy black-and-white illustrations.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)