Read at Your Own Risk

Gr 3-5–Bugs crawling under skin and teeth falling out are the stuff of nightmares, making them perfect fodder for this heavily illustrated horror title. Readers follow Hannah after she is cursed by an ominous entity who lives in her school’s abandoned library. She documents a series of freak accidents through increasingly frantic journal entries and as she attempts to rid herself of the hex, the entity begins to write back to her. Lai has already shown a talent for both humor and horror for middle graders, and this title is a natural fit for her talents. She strips down her usual warm and goofy illustrative style, as seen in Pawcasso and Pie in the Sky, for menacing doodles featuring vacant, black eyes, sharp teeth, and blood stains. Yet in both illustrations and text, she avoids tilting into overly scary territory, using comedic breaks and outlandish situations to maintain a balance for skittish readers. There are some logic jumps and missing details that might trip up the most observant, but the story’s chaotic energy will inspire them to keep those pages turning.