The Haunted Serpent

February 1, 2018

Gr 4-6-Moving to a new town can be tough; add a 10-foot, man-eating boa constrictor, bodies being stolen from graves, and a mysterious factory and moving to the town of Thederoot is downright dangerous. After recording notes of these ominous happenings, Spaulding S. Meriweather realizes that moving to the strange town with his aunt is precarious; yet, following in the footsteps of his paranormal investigating parents, Spaulding is determined to find answers. After all, who could ignore finding human fingers in the spokes of his bike after a visit to the local pond? With help from his "ghostly" neighbor and three friends, Spaulding battles the undead, a powerful necromancer, and a "deadly" beauty to unlock the connected secrets of Thederoot. Mitchell's tale infuses mystery, horror, science fiction, and a tinge of humor to entice a wide variety of genre readers. The author's strong description of the main character's actions paired with comic-style illustrations, clipped from Spaulding's research journal, stimulate empathy as well as curiosity. Readers will feel as though they are investigators alongside Spaulding as nonstop hints and clues are sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, seems abrupt and unfinished, leaving crucial elements, such as Spaulding's relationship with his parents, dangling. The title of the book, common and unimaginative, fails to encompass the curious and original story. VERDICT A spooky, high-interest adventure for reluctant readers and fans of action-packed tales. Recommended for additional purchase.-Mary-Brook J. Townsend, The McGillis School, Salt Lake City

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2018
Ghosts and zombies and boa constrictors, oh my!Spaulding Meriweather has moved around a lot with his great-aunt Gwendolyn. She used to home-school him between writing her bestselling mysteries, but now that they have moved to her girlhood hometown, Thedgeroot, he has started attending sixth grade at public school. Making friends is not his strong suit; he's a little odd, just like his parents, who have a specious paranormal-investigations television show that keeps them too busy to care for him. Complicating matters, he is pretty sure he saw a zombie--er, revenant--in the woods outside of town, and someone is stealing bodies from the local cemetery. Then he meets the ghost next door, Mr. Radzinsky, who was eaten by his own boa constrictor. Spaulding contacts his parents, but he has cried spook before; they won't come. He decides to go it alone and investigate the zombies and the not-so-abandoned Slecht-Tech factory nearby...well, not alone. There's fourth-grade neighbor Lucy Bellwood and her older sister, Marietta, and another classmate, Kenny Lin--and Mr. Radzinsky seems keen to help as well. Author/illustrator Mitchell's debut is spooky and sarcastic. Her occasional illustrations (purportedly culled from Spaulding's notebook, complete with funny captions) are an added bonus. They depict Spaulding as white and Lucy and Marietta as black; Kenny is cued as Asian. Fans of Dan Poblocki, John Bellairs, and R.L. Stine will all be right at home and smiling at the shivers (and the jokes). (Suspense. 8-12)

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March 1, 2018
Grades 4-7 Spaulding Meriwether is new to Thedgeroot, the town where his parents, television ghost-busters, have sent him to live with his great-aunt Gwen. Never one who fits in, Spaulding dreads beginning sixth grade, and, unsurprisingly, his new teachers and classmates waste no time in making fun of him. But something far more threatening is happening in Thedgeroot. Between the revenant in the woods and a run-in with his (dead) neighbor's boa constrictor, Spaulding's new home is getting creepier by the day. When he stumbles upon disturbing things in the vicinity of the old Slecht-Tech plant, he persuades two sisters to help him investigate. If the sisters harbored any doubts about Spaulding's unusual claims, witnessing decomposing bodies rise from graves in the local cemetery convinces them that something weird is indeed happening. Together, the trio work to uncover several of the strange mysteries plaguing Thedgeroot. Mitchell's well-developed kid characters and excellent caricatures (both written and visual) of the evil adult despots make this paranormal read engaging and goosebump inducing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)