Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, totally worn out and screaming,
"WOO HOO, what a ride!"

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Review: School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari



Everyone is afraid

of something…




Madeleine is deadly afraid of bugs, especially spiders. Theodore is petrified of dying. Lulu is scared of confined spaces. Garrison is terrified of deep water. The parents of these twelve-year-olds are desperate for help so they send them to the exclusive School of Fear. But the kids notice that a peculiar teacher and her strange teaching style are more frightening than their phobias. This may be the scariest summer of their lives.

Although this wasn’t quite what I expected it was a very clever and quirky book. I assumed it was going to be a scary story when it was actually a story about being scared. It wasn’t any less interesting, just different. The four children came from their homes in England, New York, Rhode Island and Florida to attend the secret school in a very tiny town in Massachusetts. Their fears had taken over and affected the lives of family and friends and extreme measures had to be taken. So begins a summer of comical and mysterious adventures as they seek “treatment” from the very odd Mrs. Wellington.

The unusual children with their specific characteristics reminded me a bit of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Lemony Snicket’s A Series if Unfortunate Events series. Although it’s a children’s book I enjoyed it myself and look forward to sharing this author’s debut with family.

Thank you to Hatchette Books for a review copy of this book.

Publisher: Little, Brown and Kids

Release date: 9/09

Pages: 352

Price/format: $15.99/hardcover

Type: children’s fiction

3 comments:

  1. I thought at first they would be like the kids in Unfortunate Events but this is different...do you think it is more for middle age elem. kids? That would be my guess from your review...thanks as I'd never heard of it...

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  2. Hey Wrighty,

    Sorry you haven't heard back from me. I've been trying to respond to your emails about books for trade but I keep getting a mailer daemon failure notice back for some reason. I just wanted to let you know why you hadn't gotten a response. I'm going to try one more time.

    ~Briana

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