Over the Garden Wall: Hollow Town by Celia Lowenthal

Illustrated by Jorge Monlongo 4 stars Delightfully spooky. After a series of unfortunate raft troubles, Wirt, Greg, Beatrice, and everyone’s favorite frog seek refuge in a quiet town filled with polite inhabitants. However, the longer they stay, the more sinister the town seems. Can they unlock its dark secrets, and if they do, will they…

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Hide and Don’t Seek: And Other Very Scary Stories by Anica Mrose Rissi

Illustrated by Carolina Godina 4 stars Delightfully creepy and well written. Nice variety of story structures including poetry, short stories, an epistolary, a play, chat fiction told through text messages, metafiction, and even stream of consciousness from a family dog. In terms of kid’s horror, I think this one hits the mark well for middle…

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Once There Was by Corinne Demas

Illustrated by Gemma Capdevila 3 stars Soft and lush. Magical and dreamy. Poetic and lovely. Follow the main character through a cyclical rotation of dreaming she is a princess, a horse, a mountain, and the sea, to name a few. The delightful repetition of the text is soothing and smooth while the illustrations are utterly…

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A Dreidel in Time: A New Spin on an Old Tale

by Marcia Berneger Illustrated by Beatriz Castro 3 stars A fun, quick read about the origins of Hanukkah complete with adventure and time travel. Reminiscent of the Magic Treehouse books. All Devorah and Benjamin want to do is open their Hanukkah presents. But they’re in for a surprise when their family gives them an old…

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