The Perfect type of Scary

Scary School
By: Derek the Ghost
Reported by: Julianna Helms
Source: The Very Kind Derek

You think your school's scary?

Get a load of these teachers:
"Ms. Fang," an 850-year-old vampire
"Dr. Dragonbreath," who just might eat you before recess
"Mr. Snakeskin"--science class is so much more fun when it's taught by someone who's half zombie
"Mrs. T"--break the rules and spend your detention with a hungry "Tyrannosaurus rex"

Plus gargoyles, goblins, and Frankenstein's monster on the loose

The world's most frighteningly delicious school lunch

And the narrator is an eleven-year-old ghost.

Join Charles "New Kid" Nukid as he makes some very Scary friends--including Petunia, Johnny, and Peter the Wolf--and figures out that Scary School can be just as funny as it is spooky.

-Summary from Goodreads
Purchase: Mrs. Nelson's (support my local indie store!)||Barnes&Noble||Amazon||Book Depository

I'm a scaredy cat.

It's an universal fact, really. I get scared outta my wits for the simplest things. But over the years, I've come to discern that there are two types of scary:

1) The OH I AM GOING TO SCARE YOU ALRIGHT type: This one's so common, its ratio to Type 2 is like 99:1. It's the horror movie you're psyched to see and then scared to death of. It's the jokes your friends whisper and then you have nightmares about. (Really, why would you have friends who do that, anyway?) It's the scary thing that scares you in a memorable way, alright...

A terrifying, never-again-am-I-going-back-to-this type of scary.

That is not Scary School.

2) The OH, THAT WAS SCARY BUT SO FUN! AGAIN! type: This is the entertaining type of scary that kids love on Halloween. It's scary but you expect it, and it's got a plate of humor as a side dish and fun as your drink. It's scary but it's the type of scary that makes you laugh and not make you have a heart attack rivaling a tornado.

That is Scary School.

My brother (AKA The Kid) and I read this book together. He's exactly in the age range that the story is aimed for, so I figured it'd be a good idea. I remember the first day we started reading it:

Me: Hey, kiddo, we're gonna read 'til page 70 today, 'k?
The Kid: Page SEVENTY? Can't we reach that tomorrow?
Me: *raises eyebrows*
The Kid: *groans* FIIIIIINEEEE.

~30 minutes later~

Me: Hey, Kid, we're on page 100. You wanna stop?
The Kid: SHHH! I'M TRYING TO READ HERE!
Me: *secretly smiles*

As you can tell, Scary School is a clear success with characters echoing the loves of kids and a plot that's both challenging and hilariously awkward. It's strange, grotesque, and so very in character. It's like Edgar Allan Poe for kids, minus the blood and deaths--just kidding. There's plenty of deaths in this book.

Which... brings up an interesting point.

Now, this wasn't an issue for me or my brother, and you know those Goosebumps stories (totally Scary Type 1!) utilize this like I eat rice, but there are a lot of deaths in this book. Not violent, gory, brutal deaths like in The Hunger Games but deaths that are "common." At Scary School, death is not a distant ponder: it's an inevitability. Derek addresses the deaths as if they are no big deal (I mean, Nurse Hairymoles can bring you back from the dead--literally--so what's there to worry about?), but some parents may see this as an indirect way to emphasize the nonchalance of death. Or teach kids about how you should let a teacher turn your world into an autocracy. (Just kidding, Russia!) (...maybe...) I encourage parents to let their children enjoy this mock-up of a perfectly balanced novel between hilarity and genuine characterizations.

Basically, if you didn't get the memo: Scary School is perfect for scaredy cats, non-scaredy cats, and all of the cats in between.