May 15, 2022
Vignettes about the spooky students of Stubtoe Elementary, located on the island of Creep's Cove. The first in Nichols' new series The Terribles, this illustrated novel features an island full of creepy creatures--vampires, mummies, aliens, zombies, and cryptids--and a few humans. Nichols addresses readers directly, using a familiar tone much like that of an older kid sharing wisdom with the younger crowd. This book focuses on a class that includes Vlad the vampire, Frankie the mad scientist (a human with dark skin and black hair), Lobo the werewolf, and Bobby the gelatinous glob, among others. Each chapter features a different short story about an inhabitant of Creep's Cove and their hijinks. The world is so well imagined that Bobby even has his own Glob Talk glossary included at the end. Many of the footnotes are funny asides, providing context but also adding to the conversational, storytelling tone of the book. The black-and-white illustrations peppered throughout read as cute more than creepy, which helps establish the book's playful atmosphere. The characters are charming; the features that make them monsterlike also serve to make them endearing and true to their childlike characteristics. Who can resist a blob who can't stop eating cruciferous veggies and swells to take over a town? Or Griff, an invisible kid who's a master at hide-and-seek? The pacing, voice, and imaginative creatures will keep readers turning pages. High-appeal characters presented with plenty of laughs. (Fiction. 8-12)
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June 1, 2022
Grades 2-4 Welcome to the island of Creep's Cove, where all the monsters (and, the author notes, "monster-adjacent humans") of the world have settled down to enjoy bagels from Knifeteeth Mike's Bagel Wasteland and send the kids to school. Along with meeting several eager learners (there's Lizzie, a kaiju with anger issues who complains that her moms destroy cities but hassle her if she breaks a few flowerpots, and Vlad, the vampire who discovers that he won't explode in sunlight if he lets classmate Bobby, a gelatinous blob, shlarf him down), readers can watch a scary educational film about humans, see young Frankie literally make a new friend from her single dad's spare-parts bin, or select a bagel from a menu that includes "blue cheese (not on purpose)." Nichols strews simply drawn cartoon art in a mix of single and sequential panels throughout and caps his series kickoff with a glossary of blobby "Glob Talk" for those who might wish to, for instance, glurf rather than yell, or shlarf rather than engulf their lunches.
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