Wuftoom

Gr 6–9—Evan, a sixth grader, is confined to his room where all the windows are covered to keep out any light that might torture him. His mother comes home exhausted from a terrible job she keeps for the insurance so that doctors will continue to see him, even though they have no idea what is wrong with him. Evan finds out from the wormlike creature that slithers across his floor at night that he is slowly turning into a Wuftoom like it. A giant, mothlike horror that is one of the Vitflies also visits Evan. As the boy gets caught up in a war between the two kinds of creatures, he also unwittingly pulls in one of his classmates. The thought of Jordan going through this same process in which his hands and arms and legs are slowly fusing into a worm body covered in a pink and slimy membrane upsets Evan, and it will probably have the same effect on readers. Those with strong stomachs for the gross and creepy may be the audience for this Kafkaesque book, but it's unlikely to appeal to a wide audience.—Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO