New Goosebumps

Do you remember the show with the ghost stories on Nickelodeon? Kids would gather around a campfire and tell scary stories of “true events”? I loved that show. They weren’t Tales from the Crypt frightening (another show I watched as a kid), but they had enough of a scare element that it kept you coming back every weekend for more campfire tales.

Goosebumps were must-reads in the 90’s. They made the days better and I’m sorry to say, that I only lasted on these tales for a short time. Around 14, I was introduced to Anne Rice and once Lestat entered my life, I couldn’t go back to scary stories. Demons were not to be feared, they were authoritative figures that could grant you immortality if you played your cards right. Once you’ve let the Witching Hour into your heart, there’s little time for Nickelodeon.

I’ve just now found my way back to YA horror stories. I thought they would be juvenile funny, but they’re turning out to pack a punch.

Small Spaces

I don’t remember stories in my teens having storylines with kids whose parents died. There were orphans like Narnia and Nancy Drew didn’t have a mom, but she had a mustang convertible. There weren’t any stories that I remembered about kids dealing with the loss of a parent and dealing with their own sense of mortality. It’s heavy stuff.

Small Spaces is about Ollie, an 11-year old that learns there’s something weird going on in her town and she just might be reading the journal of ghost she sees around town. I don’t want to ruin this tale for anyone, but she deals with a big bad and confronts that individual head on.

Preteens dealing with adult figures that are trying to do them physical harm and even kill them? The world has grown up since I was a kid and I’m reading it all.

The Last Kids on Earth

The style of this book is that of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I didn’t read wimpy kid when it first came out, so this was my first experience reading a teenage boy’s journal. It was funny and as you would guess has a lot of fart jokes.

The protagonist, Jack, is a middle school student that writes in his journal about the day the world ended and zombies and monsters began to roam the earth.

Jack is a funny character and I wonder if beneath the sarcastic and quirky veneer there’s a kid that is holding in a decade worth of PTSD to let off one day in therapy. In Walking Dead, we have Rick waking up in a hospital in post-apocalyptic Atlanta searching for his wife and kid and he definitely had several moments where he cracked big time. How Jack and his friends are not breaking down like Lord of the Flies and roasting one of the other kid’s in the hallway is a shock to me.

I don’t know if I will continue with this tale. It looks to follow Jack through school and finding his love and.. what? Are they going to solve the riddle to why zombies exist and save the world? It’s fun, but I’m invested in other storylines that are trying to solve similar problems and I don’t know if I have time to invest in Jack and his friends for this run.

A Tale Dark & Grimm

I was a paragraph into Gidwitz’ story when I realized he was a voice I could identify with. His reimagining of the Grimm fairytales is hilarious and his explanation as to how crazy people had to be to write the stories to begin with is also laugh out loud funny.

We follow Hansel and Gretel through some very frightening stories that border on child protective services. They grow and learn some things along the way that give them the tools to destroy the big bads and help their family survive.

Gidwitz doesn’t pull his punches — he has a pedophile in this story and he doesn’t sugarcoat it. I had to re-read the chapter because I couldn’t believe it. I remember thinking, “did he just plain put a pedo in this story, holy shit he did, and then he kills him, good job.” Either kids are getting smarter or parents are having conversations with their kids about these things and letting them know there’s a lot of bad shit out there and it has nothing to do with goblins.

This is definitely an author that I will continue reading.

Through the Woods

I saw the cover of this story and grabbed it and it blew my mind. The graphics are beautiful and the stories can be for young adults and everyone else. The very first tale is haunting. These are short stories that can be completed on a lazy afternoon of reading. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but the stories deal with perception and how we may learn things too late — how it’s always good to listen to you instincts.

I’m pretty sure Carroll only used three colors to create the artwork in this book and it keeps you mesmerized throughout. The pace of her storytelling coupled with the artwork keeps the reader entranced and turning the pages.

It’s been a great month for discovering YA stories and the creators that make them. I have another twenty sitting on my table that I will get to and I wanted to share some of these with you now so that you would have some stories to read this holiday season.