Home Sweet Horror [chapter book love]

Home Sweet Horror
by James Preller
Feiwel and Friends, 2013

5 things I love about this early chapter book:

1. The art is dark and creepy and spectacular!
2. Even though this is clearly a plot-centric story, there are emotional elements, too, mostly centering on the grief of the loss of Mom two years before.
3. There’s nice foreshadowing in furnace problems and such that give leeway for various interpretations/explanations, but?
4. it’s really a ghost story. There is no easy logical?answer, and the ghost is not satisfied and expunged. I think we need lots more scary books for kids who love them!
5. The voice is just distant enough that you can read it without being scarred for life:>)

Summary from Indiebound: Welcome. Have a seat. Let us tell you a story. But be warned. Home Sweet Horror isn’t just any tale. This is a Scary Tale.?Meet Liam Finn, who’s just moved into a new home with his father and sister. But this old house that seems empty, isn’t . . . Bloody Mary is here. Called back from the dead by a game, she’s just dying to talk.

(Review copy provided by my amazing Maple Grove Public Library, though I then did receive a review copy from the publisher, too.)

I’m having so much fun reading lots of fabulous easy readers as part of the Cybils panel, and I’m trying to share one or two per week.?If you find these posts useful, please share them with other educators and book people using the social share buttons below. Part of the fun of being nominated for a Cybil is that more people get to hear about your book. Thanks!

Disclaimer: This is MY opinion only! This does not reflect any Cybils discussion nor the opinions of the other Cybils panelists or judges. Perhaps I’ll share some titles everyone else on the panel hates! Perhaps I’ll share ones everyone has fallen in love with. I’ll never tell, and you’ll never know:>)