Dare to be Scared

With all the wild storms and power outages I remembered an awesome book to read by flashlight under the covers.  Dan Poblocki's The Stone Child is guaranteed to have you getting out the monster spray and checking under the bed.  Eddie Fennicks believes it's a dream come true when his family moves to Gatesweed, the hometown of his favorite author Nathaniel Olmstead.  But not everyone in his new hometown is as excited about having a famous author in residence.  Not only are people reluctant to talk about Nathaniel Olmstead  and his mysterious disappearance thirteen years earlier, but he is also  blamed for the local factory being shut down.  Eddie finds a fellow Olmstead enthusiast in Harris May, whose mom owns the local bookstore. After discovering an unpublished book by Nathaniel Olmstead, they set out to solve the mystery of his disappearance.  They are joined in their quest by Maggie Ringer after they are attacked at the library by a gremlin.  Narrowly escaping, they are convinced that the Olmstead Curse is coming true - the monsters in his books are coming to life and taking over the town.  They are the only ones who stand between the monsters and the town of Greensweed!

Will they succeed or will the Olmstead Curse ultimately come true?  I love scary books.  Stephen King and Dean Koontz are two of my favorite authors; so how could Dan Poblocki measure up?  He does it and does it well.  Poblocki's descriptive passages of haunted woods and monsters are fabulous.  The Eddie, Harris, Maggie, and all the characters are very believable and you find yourself rooting for them to win the race to save their families and all they love.  The monsters are the stuff of shadows and nightmares.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery and great monsters...just remember to sleep with the lights on!

In reading an interview with Dan Poblocki, his mother retells the story of receiving phone calls from other parents saying that Dan's stories were giving their children nightmares.  He decided to write them down instead.  Check out Dan Poblocki's, The Stone Child, and his other works at his website http://www.danpoblocki.com/

Poblocki, D. (2009). The stone child. New York, NY: Scholastic.