There's a Nightmare in My Closet (Pied Piper Book)

Book Description

Childhood fear of the dark and the resulting exercise in imaginative exaggeration are given that special Mercer Mayer treatment in this dryly humorous fantasy. -School Library Journal

Customer Reviews:

My two year old's fave book.......2007-08-23

This book is great. It is the first book my two year old "read" himself...and my four year old loves it as well. Classic read - we like it so much we just bought it for our new niece, confident she will grow to love it as much as her cousins do! I'd give it six stars if I could!

Beware if you don't already have nighttime fears.......2007-07-12

Without much forethought, I pulled this book out of the closet to read to my nearly 4-year-old. Despite the child's unfortunate use of a weapon, a toy gun, to scare the monster/nightmare, this might have been an amusing way to talk about talk about 'things that bump in the night'. Unfortunately, in our house, it created worries about 'nightmares'. My child has no clue what a nightmare is, just that it's something she should be afraid of, causing an anxiety about falling asleep. After several discussions about the fact that a nightmare is a bad dream (like my childhood nightmare of losing my blankie), and how to handle them, my daughter continues to ask, "Mama, what color your nightmare?" English is my daughter's second language, making abstract concepts a bit more difficult to grasp. I wish I'd considered that before reading the book. Please don't read this to your child unless you're sure she/he can understand the message.

My daughter loves this book.......2007-03-26

My almost three year old daughter thinks this book is great. It is wonderful how the feared is befriended. The pictures are wonderful and very evocative. Enjoy it!

Kids Love This Book.......2007-01-12

When my daughter was two she quickly memorized this book and created and repeatedly used a play on words that tickled her pink. I've read it a zillion times to her and others and am prompted with the word, "again" when I am done. The pictures are very detailed and tell a story all their own.

I recently bought this book for another 2 year old who would choose this book over all the others on the shelf. My daughter is now 21. This book is timeless.

Fantastic book for eager beginning readers.......2006-11-11

My grandson loved this book! He's beginning to read and was ready for books with a bit more of a plot and more than a single line on a page. He loved this book. It appealed to his imagination and had him in giggles looking forward to what he'd find on the next page. I recommend it highly for those children reading at the first - second grade level.

Average customer rating:

Honestly, it just didn't do it for me.
Impressed
Very good.
Wonderful story
Demon in my view

Demon in My View (Laurel-Leaf Books)
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0440228840
Release Date: 2001-09-11

Amazon.com

The teen queen of horror fiction Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is on the prowl again! Continuing in much the same vampire vein that established her reputation, the young writer's sophomore novel also includes a touch of autobiography. Jessica Allodola is a high school senior who pens vampire tales under the pseudonym Ash Night. (Hmmm, sound familiar?) Because of her funereal clothing and cynical demeanor, Jessica is shunned by her sunnier classmates. No matter, she prefers the company of the undead she creates on her laptop, anyway. But Jessica is shaken when a creature from her novel, the suave vampire Aubrey (who fans will remember from In the Forests of the Night) shows up as a new student at her school. Not knowing whether he plans to seduce or harm her, Jessica plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Aubrey as she tries to discover the secret of his existence. As she delves deeper into the midnight world of her own novels, she encounters other supernatural beings, like Fala, an evil Egyptian vampire, and Caryn Smoke, a teenaged good witch. When she finally unearths the shocking truth that explains the tangibility of her imaginary world, Jessica must decide if she loves that dark world enough to leave the light forever.

Atwater-Rhode's writing, while still showing strong traces of Anne Rice and Stephen King, is maturing nicely as she cleverly constructs this story within a story. Her vampires, while thousands of years old, have adolescent mood swings and tempers, which will sit well with the under-16 crowd. Demon in My View will undoubtedly find its way into many backpacks and Trapper Keepers. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

Book Description

Jessica isn't your average teenager. Though nobody at her high school knows it, her vampire novel has just come out under a pen name. Jessica often wishes that she felt as comfortable with her classmates as she does among the vampires and witches of her fiction. She has always been treated as an outsider at Ramsa High.

But two new students have just arrived in Ramsa, and both want Jessica's attention. She has no patience for overly friendly Caryn, but she's instantly drawn to Alex, a handsome boy who seems surprisingly familiar. If she didn't know better, she'd think that Aubrey, the alluring villain from her novel, had just sprung to life. That's impossible, of course; Aubrey is a figment of her imagination. Or is he?

Customer Reviews:

Honestly, it just didn't do it for me........2007-09-30

I had been wanting to read this book for a long time. Word reached my ears that it was amazing.
Well, I was sourly disapointed.
In the book a "flawless" girl named Jessica has a talent for writing vampire storys and thinks thats all that they are- storys.
Then the relization kicks in on how her storys are actually real and vampires want to kill her, one falls in love with her, typico!

I found myself hating this Jessica. Too perfect was she, the author should have created some flaws to make her less dry and boring.
The book was so pridictable that at one point I put it down and didn't come back to it for a week, already knowing what was going to happen.
To me, it was dry and tastless. yet, for a fifteen year old I think if she stives towards making her charatures more interesting, she could come out with a good one.

It honestly didn't do it for me, and if your still debating on wether or not to read it I say go for it. Just, be prepared for disapointment.

Impressed.......2007-08-15

I am once again impressed by Amelia's writing. While it does lack a certain depth, it captures your attention from page one and is filled with action throughout. Both this book and her first, In The Forests Of The Night are worth reading.

Very good........2006-12-18

This is ,yet again, a very interesting book by Amelie Atwater Rhodes. It has an exetremely good veiw on vampires and the charactors have some very thrilling and surprising qualitys. It had a little bit of everything and you should read it!
Demon in My Veiw is about a girl named Jessica who doesn't fit in at school at all. She is looking for something to do , some excitment and when Aubry shows up as a new student at school there is deffinetly some excitement. He is a complete mystery and Jessica decides she will go all the way until she knows more about him. Throughout the book Jessica begins to relize Aubry is very dangerous ,but the great thing about it is she doesn't care! It is a great book , for sure.

Wonderful story.......2006-10-31

she comes up with such creative story lines and creative unique titles that make you want to pick it up and give it more thought, since this book i have read all of her other books! and i love them all!!!

Demon in my view.......2006-07-25

Jessica's story ideas come to her in dreams. She dreams of vampires: how they're changed, their fights, their love, even their secret hide out. She doesn't really believe in vampires. She doesn't know that her dreams are all real. But the vampires do and they're ticked. Aubrey is sent to kill her but he just cant. So Fala gives him a choice: kill her or change her.

Average customer rating:

Starlight Surprise (My Secret Unicorn)
Linda Chapman
Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0439813859

Book Description

Lauren has a secret: When she whispers the magic words, her pony turns into a beautiful snow-white unicorn. Lauren doesn't believe in ghosts, but there is definitely something spooky going on down by the creek. Then one night, as Lauren and Twilight fly over the woods near the scary tree house, they make a surprising discovery.

Average customer rating:

Didn't care for it
Entertaining.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Oklahoma Setting
Good Book

Oh My Goth
Gena Showalter
Manufacturer: MTV
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1416524746

Book Description

A fiercely individualist Goth girl wakes up to discover that the whole world has gone Goth and she's actually -- gag -- popular.

Jade Leigh is a nonconformist who values individuality above all else. She has a small group of like-minded Goth friends who wear black, dabble in the dark arts, and thrive outside the norm. They're considered the "freaks" of their high school. But when Jade's smart mouth lands her in trouble -- again -- her principal decides to teach her a lesson she'll never forget.

Taken to a remote location where she is strapped down and sedated, Jade wakes up in an alternate universe where she rules the school. But her best friends won't talk to her, and the people she used to hate are all Goth. Only Clarik, the mysterious new boy in town, operates outside all the cliques. And only Mercedes, the Barbie clone Jade loathes, believes that Jade's stuck in a virtual reality game -- because she's stuck there, too, now living the life of a "freak." Together, they realize they might never get back to reality...and that even if they do, things might never be the same.

Customer Reviews:

Didn't care for it.......2007-09-12

Isn't this what youth is suppose to be preventing? I can't stand these cliques and these stereotypes.. and yet Mtv(not surprised by them really) has set out a line of books completing to that. Why are you supporting something that you are fighting at the same time? You can't be on both sides expecting a pass. You all are such hypocrites because you usually have the attitude of, "Don't label us! We're people just like you! We have our own style!". Ha! You are not fooling anyone with this book. When I picked this off the shelf I had not expected such a farfetched standard for the plot. Critisize me on that all you want since I believe it was a waste of my time as well. The concept it creative, yes, but everything that comes with that is such the typical view of a close minded person. And I believe the author has a very fast paced and detailed way of words, making it a better read. Nonetheless, my opinion stands.

Well good job, Mtv. Well done. Now I'll just have even more people questioning why I do the things I do and wear the things I wear.
Oh no, couldn't be Weatherly now could I? Now I have to be known as something riduculous like a "cemetary goth" or "punk goth" and the like.

Entertaining........2007-07-20

I thought the book was cute. The plot was interesting. However, while reading the book I got a sense that the author did not quite understand the Goth subculture. To me it felt like she just went on Google and searched the word "Goth" and used whatever she found as a reference. An example of this would be how Jade kept referring to other Goths as cemetary Goth, asian Goth, and etcetera. In real life most Goths are not that easy to pin point. Most are rather varied in their interests and would fall under many different categories. I was also annoyed at how cheesy and cliche some of the Goths in the virtual world were. For instance, one girl walks up to Jade and says "Darkness rules!". Being a Goth myself I know for a fact that in real life a Goth would not say that to another Goth unless they were joking. I was also annoyed when one girl asked Jade to start a black magic club. Oh come on! Now, if she would've wanted a Peter Murphy or Siouxsie Sioux fan club then that would've been better. It would've been cool if the author could have slipped a few references to bands like Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy, The Mission UK, and Sex Gang Children in the book. Also, I think it would've been entertaining to see some new classes added to the virtual high school. Classes like Goth Rock Music History, DIY 101, and Proper Make up Application. Overall this is a very cute book. I would recommend renting it from your local library if you are bored and need something to do.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too.......2007-06-23

Jade is a Goth-girl who is a total nonconformist and is a "freak" at her school.

Mercedes is a "Barbie" -- blonde, super-popular, and a total conformist, who is also Jade's mortal enemy.

Clarik is a new mysterious boy that has come to their high school, who Jade quickly realizes she has a crush on.

The girls' principal is sick of these two girls causing problems so she decides to teach them a lesson they will never forget.

After getting the parents' consent, the girls are taken to an old rundown building, strapped down, and sedated. Mercedes and Jade have no idea what is going on, until they wake up at home. They go to school only to realize that everyone has turned Goth and the "Barbies" are the "freaks" now.

The girls don't like their new environment at all and are determined to find out how to get back to reality. Clarik is in the game with them and he and Jade become very close. Can he help get them back? Will they ever get back to the reality they knew? When they get home, will things be the same way they were before, or will the girls have to change?

This is a super-fun, fast-paced novel that even someone who would be called a "Barbie" can like! The characters are all lovable, and I really enjoyed this book!

Reviewed by: Taylor Rector

Oklahoma Setting.......2007-03-07

One of the reason I bought this book was because the setting was in Oklahoma. The story is good and I felt for the characters.

Good Book .......2006-10-02

I like the book, maybe it hasent been my favorite book, but it has some meaning in it, for example: culture discrimination, how tenns see the world today, so on and so fort. You can actually understand a subculture by reading this book, and also it helps you understand the outside world.

Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? (Mostly Ghostly)

Average customer rating:

HAVE YOU METMY GHOULFRIEND?(MOSTLY GHOSTLY)
Still Not All That Impressed
Great!

Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? (Mostly Ghostly)
R.L. Stine
Manufacturer: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385746644
Release Date: 2004-08-24

Book Description

Nicky and Tara still live in Max’s bedroom, and while they’ve found some clues, they still don’t know what happened to their parents. Meanwhile, Phears is still desperate to get his hands on Nicky and Tara, and to pressure Max into turning them over, Phears brings a Berserker Ghoul to inhabit Max’s body—and make Max go berserk when he least expects it! But Max, Nicky, and Tara aren’t giving in to Phears. They have a few tricks up their sleeve—like one very talkative ghost cat, who’s taken residence inside the tunnel to the ghost world. . . .

Customer Reviews:

HAVE YOU METMY GHOULFRIEND?(MOSTLY GHOSTLY).......2007-04-14

I loved it! Max Can actully play soccer because of the berseker Ghoul!Read the book to find out how Max talks!It's Really Funny! Ha-ha-hee-hee!

Still Not All That Impressed.......2006-09-26

Here we are at the second in the Mostly Ghostly series, and I'm still not all that impressed with it. What I didn't like in the first one carries over to Have you Met My Ghoulfriend?, in spades! The characters are all very flat and stereotypical...the father and brother only becoming bigger bullies, the mom more annoying, even the teachers and principal are just caricatures...there because they have to be, not really fleshed out or made believable or interesting.

In this second volume, Max is STILL having issues and Max and Tara are still appearing and disappearing without much control over it. Phears is back and badder than ever...you'd thank Max would run from any and all animals at this point! Max is under threat of being "broken" by a ghoul if he doesn't nark on Nicky and Tara. You know, Phears seems incredibly dense, no one actually knows where the parents are, yet he doesn't get the message even after incredible doses of pain to his detainees...it just feels too drawn out...a ghost that's been around for a long time and is so very powerful ought to be a bit brighter! Disappointing also is the stark admission that Max is ok and loved by his father without question for the brief and shining moment he does well at a soccer match...tisk, tisk...was this really necessary? I'm only on book 2 and I'm sick of the poor Max, he's so misunderstood shtick. I'd like to see the author move on from this and flesh out (no pun intended) the mystery of Nicky and Tara and give Max some guts for goodness sake!

For the most part, the book is fairly predictable, but I did like the ending...I won't give it away here, but it was nice to see Max take some initiative and get one over one someone else for a change! I'll continue on for a few more and see if the series improves any...I sure hope it does, because I'd hate to give it up before finding out what really happened to Nicky and Tara (and their parents) because underneath what I don't like so far, I think there's a really good scary story! I give it a B-.

Great!.......2005-05-16

Phears is back. And this time he's brought a friend, A berserker ghoul. The friend hasn't come to play with Max. The friend has come to stay with Max. And with the Ghoul inside him. Max is one wild and crazy guy.

Average customer rating:

It's MY Birthday!

Manufacturer: Greenwillow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0688096638

Book Description

Everybody's favorite monster is having a birthday!The party guests have arrived and are ready for a day of birthday fun, but Billy is having a hard time sharing his new things. He can jump rope and throw his ball all by himself, right? And when sister Hazel gives him a box of games, well, he can play those by himself, too -- or can he? A hilarious visit with Pat Hutchin's irrepressible monster who learns that sometimes sharing can be hard -- but also lots of fun. Happy Birthday, Billy!

Araminta Spookie 1: My Haunted House (Araminta Spookie)

Average customer rating:

Highly Recommend from Mother of 9 year old girl
Unspectacularly spooky
bad start into independent reading
Well written, but it is a short story at best.
Delightful book.

Araminta Spookie 1: My Haunted House (Araminta Spookie)
Angie Sage
Manufacturer: Katherine Tegen Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060774819
Release Date: 2006-07-25

Book Description

Araminta Spookie lives in a wonderful old haunted house, but her crabby aunt Tabby wants to move. Aunt Tabby is determined to sell their house—Araminta has to stop her!

With the help of a haunted suit of armor named Sir Horace, a ghost named Edmund, and a lot of imagination, Araminta hatches a plot for an Awful Ambush that is so ghoulish, it just might work!

Customer Reviews:

Highly Recommend from Mother of 9 year old girl.......2007-09-04

I found this book last year shortly after it was published. My 9 year old daughter loves to read, but has a penchant for "spooky" or ghost stories, of which most are not the highest quality of literature for this age!! I read the description of this book on Amazon.com and bought it, to see if it was something that my daughter would enjoy, and I wouldn't mind her reading (I'm not a big fan of Junie B. Jones because of the language - so I'm picky!) We read this book together, with my daughter reading it to me. She thoroughly enjoyed it - it satisfied her love of the spooky and creepy; while at the same time, I felt like she was actually being entertained and getting something from the reading! We quickly moved on to Araminta's next book, and are now in the process of finishing Frognapped. I highly recommend this book - I find it engaging, entertaining and enjoyable as both a parent and a book lover attempting to instill a love of reading in my daughter as well.

Unspectacularly spooky.......2007-09-03

Loner Araminta Spookie lives with her aunt Tabby and her uncle Drac in a slightly spooky, many-roomed house with a belligerent boiler. When her aunt becomes fed up with its tempermentality, she decides it is time to sell the house and move. Using her ghost hunting and mischief making skills, a disappointed Araminta causes enough mischief to deter most prospective buyers. But the reaction of the Wizzard family is unexpected (though not by the reader), leaving her surprised and disappointed, but eventually, happy. My Haunted House has above average illustrations, an average plot, and an entirely predictable, enjoyable ending.

bad start into independent reading.......2007-06-17

If you want your kids to talk in half sentences like a cartoon character, this is the book. If you think reading should help them develop their language skills, look somewhere else. On top of it the story is badly developed and not very creative. It feels more like it was written after a formula: take a castle, two ghosts, one annoying person, one nice weird person and a mainly obnoxious but also adventerous girl as the main character and you might have success. Araminta, the main character, is just a self-important, self-righteous, arrogant. obnoxious character, that otherwise stays flat and certainly is not a role model nor even intrinsically interesting as a character. The book doesn't inspire fantasy/creativity. It felt like the child equivalent of a dime novel. I have read volume one and two, I always like to give an author a second chance, but the second volume was even worse, it was also badly edited with glaring inconsistencies.
If you want to stimulate your child through reading, look somewhere else, like Astrid Lindgren or Roald Dahl . This is just a bad rip-off from the Harry Potter craze for ghost stories.

Well written, but it is a short story at best........2007-05-06

My child had thoroughly enjoyed the other books by Angie Sage...... Magyk, Flyte and Physk. I thought that she would enjoy the Araminta Spookie Books as well. When I had purchased the previously mentioned books, they were of epic proportions..... in the 400+ page range and packed full of regular spaced, small sized typefaced text. This is not the case in the Araminta Spookie Book. It is more the size of a paperback book with double-spaced lines and large type. When you put that with a liberal amount of illustrations and a very low page count, you have a short story being sold hardcover as a book. This is a very entertaining read, but a VERY POOR VALUE for the price. My daughter read the whole book in less than half an hour and that puts it in the TreeHouse Book League.... I feel like I paid for a book and got a chapter.

Get it at the library or buy it used. This is a poor value. Shame on you Angie Sage. You could have done better for your fans.

Delightful book........2007-01-04

This book isn't as well written as her Magyk books, but still very well done. I'd say it's written for a younger audience than Magyk. But perhaps not, I've been reading it to my 7 year old (who wants more than just one chapter a night), and my 11 year old started coming over to hear too!
If your looking for a book that a child can read for himself/herself, I'd say this is for 2nd graders and up.

My Weird School #13: Mrs. Patty Is Batty! (My Weird School)

Average customer rating:

Great Fun!
a good read for your kids

My Weird School #13: Mrs. Patty Is Batty! (My Weird School)
Dan Gutman
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060853808
Release Date: 2006-07-25

Book Description

Mrs. Patty, the secretary, gives out the best Halloween candy in the history of the world! But her house is haunted! People say she's a witch and her husband is a ghost. Is it worth A.J. risking his life for the best candy ever?

Customer Reviews:

Great Fun!.......2007-08-08

My kids love these books. My 9 year old daughter has read many of them and can't get enough. They are great summer reading. She sat down with her 7 year old brother and read this one to him and they were laughing hysterically throughout the book. They are quck and easy to read.

a good read for your kids.......2006-11-10

My daughter just loves the My Weird School series. The books come out about every month so it gives her some thing to look forward to. The books are cheap so for your dollar you really can't beat it. The reading level isn't too high so she gets through them fast and it gives her confidence in her reading abilities. The main character A.J. is in second grade and hates school (something that every kid can relate to).

The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Average customer rating:

ghostly
Wonderful tales of fantasy
Highly recommended!
How can it even be approached?
As good as wine

The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Amos Tutuola
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802133630

Book Description

When Amos Tutuola's first novel, The Palm-Wine Drinkard, appeared in 1952, it aroused exceptional worldwide interest. Drawing on the West African Yoruba oral folktale tradition, Tutuola described the odyssey of a devoted palm-wine drinker through a nightmare of fantastic adventure. Since then, The Palm-Wine Drinkard has been translated into more than 15 languages and has come to be regarded as a masterwork of one of Africa's most influential writers. Tutuola's second novel, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, recounts the fate of mortals who stray into the world of ghosts, the heart of the tropical forest. Here, as every hunter and traveler knows, mortals venture at great peril, and it is here that a small boy is left alone.

Customer Reviews:

ghostly.......2007-04-14

The introduction to My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, the first book in this two-for-one volume, makes you think that it's an anthropological work for class, not a story you're reading for fun. That's a shame, because these two stories are worth reading in their own right. But in comparison to the standard Western literary format, they are unquestionably different.

Most Western literature I read focuses on a cohesive narrative with a beginning, middle and end, a specific plot, and rich descriptions of characters, places, and emotions. That's not what happens here. Rather, the story unwinds in a very linear fashion, bit by bit, as the character passes through the ghost world he has stumbled into, seemingly at random. There is no surprise expressed by the protagonist when, for example, he meets a ghosts with televisions on her hands, or is transformed by a ghost into a monkey to go climb trees and pick nuts for the ghost to eat. These things are just stated as given, a part of the ongoing adventure. The passage of time is also a very fluid thing. A chapter, or several, can describe the events of a single hour and then a single sentence can describe the passing of a decade. It's a loose, free-flowing narrative built on the imagination of the author, and his ability to dream up ghosts wild, unexpected, and grotesque. It's an enjoyable ride but it takes some getting used to.

Wonderful tales of fantasy.......2005-10-21

Reading them evoked similarities with fairy tales of Western culture: supernatural forces, shape-shifting, "monsters," battles between good and evil, etc.

At the same time, however, I was struck at how dissimilar these stories were to any fairy tale I'd ever read, or any other tale I'd read for that matter.

There is a tone of ease to the stories, of a casual approach to danger. It is though our "heroes" understand the significance of the crises they face, but they throw off the challenges with a shrug, since in their world, the "natural" and the "supernatural" interact all of the time b/c they live in close proximity with one another. After all, what's the worst that could happen? Death, in both of these stories, is a relative term at best, and is usually correctible.

This casual approach gives the stories a freer feeling of adventure, and allows one to accept anything that happens in these stories, no matter how wild it gets, since Tutuola's imagination in these stories is by turns hilarious, psychedelic, grotesque, and even frightening, but at all times unique.

At the same time, one gets a small taste of the mysticism, culture, and psychology of the West African Yoruba, from which Tutuola in part derives his tales. That taste filled me with a feeling of an entirely different world, one about which I knew nothing, but at the same time, one to which I could relate, as Tutuola's themes of redemption and devotion are common to us all.

The results are two stories that I adored, with no reservations whatsoever. They are simply two of the most wonderful stories I've ever read. As far as children are concerned, while these stories are violent and could certainly inspire nightmares, I intend to challenge my daughter with these stories as soon as she's able to understand what I'm saying, because I think she'll find them just as exciting and adventurous as her old man does.

Without question one of the best books of the 20th century. I can't recommend it more.

Highly recommended!.......2002-10-07

Fairy-tales? Hah! See if your kid will go to sleep after hearing one of Tutuola's mad hallucinatory (not my word) yarns.

A seldom-discussed aspect of cultural anthropology is the metamorphosis of our fairy-tales--the imaginative currency of early youth which are passed on through family and social structures alike. In America, characters like witches, ghosts, and other creatures have their genesis in Europe, or can be traced even further back to ancient Indo-European cultures (of course, we have our own indigenous tales as well). These characters and stories have become so diluted over the years, that they've lost a lot of their original cultural meaning or relevance. What does this have to do with Amos Tutuola?

"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" and "The Palm Wine Drinkard" are African tales in their pure unadulterated form. And they're not something you'd want to hear before bedtime! Amos Tutuola writes an English which lends the narration a wide-eyed, almost childlike voice--yet in the face of wild, horrific imagery (eg. armies of dead babies) the words are unflinching.

Tutuola is not for everybody, but for the adventurous reader I could not recommend this highly enough.

How can it even be approached?.......2000-05-01

What an experience. Accompanying the narrator, "Father of the gods who can do everything in this world," the reader escapes the difference between real or unreal, into where the two are the same. A book like none other i've ever come near, and i am not sure what i'd do if i did. There is no explanation, no need, just a story: creatures, trees, an alive bush, walking backward deads, menacing babies - one of which explodes from a thumb, trees within which lives "Faithful mother" who is faithful to all things - alive and dead, an egg that grants all wishes, much dancing, much music... So many things. This book is required reading for especially this, but every other, generation, for all "races" of folks, a book for which there can be no substitute. Purchase it, check out your local library, whatever, just read it. Then reread it.

As good as wine.......1999-12-23

Since 1980, when I was only 16, I have not read a book as fantastic as this one. Its pages are so dense you may even spend hours through one single paragraph in order to feel all images created by the author and taste all its delicate and, at the same time, intricate constructions. A book I will never forget.

My Pants Are Haunted (Dear Dumb Diary #2)

Average customer rating:

Dog love
never do anything, ever
Dear Dumb Diary
Giggles, a Diary, and a Girl
From the parent of an "Non-Reader"

My Pants Are Haunted (Dear Dumb Diary #2)

Manufacturer: Scholastic Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0439629055

Book Description

They were just a soft, ordinary pair of thrift-shop jeans until Jamie Kelly tried them on . . . Then they became a tight, scratchy, slightly smelly, and utterly ordinary pair of thrift-shop jeans with an embarrassing haunting problem. Do the pants have the power to soothe a vengeful beagle, vanquish The Prettiest Girl in the World, or make the wearer irresistible to the eighth cutest guy in the grade? Are the haunted pants so dazzling they can hurt and maybe permanently damage the eyes of onlookers? Or are the haunted pants just, well, haunted (which is kind of gross when you think about it)?

Customer Reviews:

Dog love.......2007-07-05

This book is good, but my little pug ate it. So it must have been really good.

never do anything, ever.......2007-04-11

funny,I like the page that she picks up the grandma's underpants.

Dear Dumb Diary.......2007-01-25

Kids have you heard of the book DEAR DUMB DIARY? Well if you haven't, this book is funny. Also it is interesting because the girls in a middle school fall in love with Hudson, the cute guy in the school. Even though I think he looks ugly in the picture of him on page 7 of the book.
Three girls decide to give another girl a much needed makeover. This is a part of the book I mostly enjoyed. Make overs are when someone changes their way of dressing. The girl who gets the make over, Margaret, wears the same thing almost everyday. Two girls, Jamie the main character and the author of the diaries & her best friend Isabella take Margaret shopping and buy her new popular clothing. After Margaret becomes popular she decides to go back to being herself and to wear her usual clothes and Hudson notices her.That's when the problem begins.
Well,I think you guys should read this book because,when you are feeling down you can change your mood to a happy one.
I recommend this book to girls 7 or older because it is written as a diary.

Giggles, a Diary, and a Girl.......2006-10-04

Do you like funny books? I have a book that will crack you up! My book is called My Pants are Haunted. It is about a girl named Jamie Kelly who writes in her diary. She writes in her diary about school, her parents, her dog Stinker, her friend Isabella, a mean girl Angelina, and a boy she has a crush on named Hudson. She gets new pants for school. She gets holes in her pants. She gets really upset because they were her best pair of jeans. This book is a series. I think this is a funny book. So get down to your nearest book store and get this book.

From the parent of an "Non-Reader".......2005-11-26

My 10 year old daughter is very picky about the books she reads. It's very sad: I buy a book, she reads one chapter, then puts it down forever...BUT when we got "Dear Dumb Diary..." she read it from cover to cover without stopping. Now she has the others in the series and is waiting for more. She has almost worn the covers off.

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