Thursday, July 14, 2011

School of Fear

I picked up School of Fear around the holiday break (way back when it was 2010!). At the same time I had 1-2 kids who were already reading the book since they'd purchased it, or received it as a gift. The early reviews from kids were that it was awesome. As a few other kids read it I noticed a struggle to finish it, particularly as kids hit the midway point. That isn't a good sign, but it still remained on my to-be-read list.

There is a fairly basic premise to the story. Four kids have very different phobias. The fears range from avoidance of water to believing bugs are everywhere (so you bring repellent with you to spray everything!). All of the kids are brought together, through their own doing or that or their parents, at the School of Fear. It is an odd place with an odd teacher. The teacher's motto: a beauty contestant is always prepared. She has an odd way of helping them overcome their fears... until she dies unexpectedly. That is where I'll leave the summary, so as not to reveal the ending.

I was less than impressed with the story. I found the 4 kids to be funny at the start of the story, but their humor wore off somewhere around the middle (which jived with what I was seeing in my classroom). It picked up again in the last 1/3 or 1/4 of the story, but it wasn't enough to save the lull in the middle that was filled with dialogue/arguing amongst the kids. There is a second story out in hardcover. I opted to wait until it is out in paperback, saving my money for something a little more substantial.

Rating: 3 out of 5. Better than average because of the humorous phobias. But missing some of the substance in the storyline that I'd seen already this summer.

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