Michael F. Stewart
Publication date: May 18th 2017
Genres: Horror, Middle-Grade
Reaching for her dream, Limpy unleashes a cute, fluffy, NIGHTMARE …
Keep in a cold, dark place. That’s what’s written like some ancient law on every bag of potatoes the family farms. And it’s where Limpy fears she will always remain.
It’s also carved on a box of spheres she discovers in the cellar. Spheres that hatch.
Cute at first, the creatures begin to grow. Then the chickens disappear. The cat is hunted. And something sets the barn ablaze. To survive, Limpy will need to face her greatest fear. The whole family will. Or they may end up in a cold, dark place indeed.
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This was such a cute book! But if your younger one is scared easily, I'd steer clear. There's a good dose of scary on the pages with bullies, monsters, curses, and life screaming down on Limpy. There's a lot going on in the book, and the author does a great job of weaving the different elements together into one complete story with all the loose threads wrapped up so nicely.
First, we have Limpy's quest to get out of the small little hole of a town she lives in. She hates the town, she hates her family's potato farm, and she doesn't seem to like very many people either. She goes about trying to get a scholarship to an art school. Her concept of a project is really cool, and I read all sorts of alternate under the surface meaning into it.
Meanwhile, back at the potato farm, she finds some strange eggs that begin to hatch into some pretty cool looking creatures. They are super cute but remind me of the gremlins. They're just the cute little furry thing you think they are. These are the monsters that keep you up at night and they are a little scary. The more you learn about them, the worse they get.
There's a few really great life lessons woven into the story. Some more obvious than others. But nice and very age appropriate as well. This book was definitely a win in my opinion. Not Little Man just needs to get a few years older so we can read it together.
Author Bio:
Michael F. Stewart is winner of both the 2015 Claymore Award and the 2014 inaugural Creation of Stories Award for best YA novel at the Toronto International Book Fair.
He likes to combine storytelling with technology and pioneered interactive storytelling with Scholastic Canada, Australia, and New Zealand’s, anti-cyberbullying program Bully For You. In addition to his award winning Assured Destruction series, he has authored four graphic novels with Oxford University Press Canada’s Boldprint series. Publications of nonfiction titles on Corruption and Children’s Rights are published by Scholastic and early readers are out with Pearson Education.
For adults, Michael has written THE SAND DRAGON a horror about a revenant prehistoric vampire set in the tar sands, HURAKAN a Mayan themed thriller which pits the Maya against the MS-13 with a New York family stuck in the middle, 24 BONES an urban fantasy which draws from Egyptian myth, and THE TERMINALS–a covert government unit which solves crimes in this realm by investigating them in the next.
Herder of four daughters, Michael lives to write in Ottawa where he was the Ottawa Public Library’s first Writer in Residence. To learn more about Michael and his next projects visit his website at www.michaelfstewart.com or connect via Twitter @MichaelFStewart.
Michael is represented by Talcott Notch.
GIVEAWAY!
This sounds like such a fun book and right up my alley, too! I love "scary" mg stories! Glad you liked it! :)
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