Lockwood and Co The Screaming Staircase

By Jonathan Stroud

A sinister Problem has occurred in London: all nature of ghosts, haunts, spirits, and specters are appearing throughout the city, and they aren’t exactly friendly. Only young people have the psychic abilities required to see—and eradicate—these supernatural foes. Many different Psychic Detection Agencies have cropped up to handle the dangerous work, and they are in fierce competition for business. In The Screaming Staircase, the plucky and talented Lucy Carlyle teams up with Anthony Lockwood, the charismatic leader of Lockwood and Co, a small agency that runs independent of any adult supervision. After an assignment leads to both a grisly discovery and a disastrous end, Lucy, Anthony, and their sarcastic colleague, George, are forced to take part in the perilous investigation of Combe Carey Hall, one of the most haunted houses in England. Will Lockwood and Co. survive the Hall’s legendary Screaming Staircase and Red Room to see another day?

In a future time when the world shifts and everything changes, ghosts, ghouls, revnants, and foul creatures of death haunt (literally) everyone. It’s called ‘The Problem’ and nobody knows why it happened. All anybody has been able to discover is that only kids under the age of 18 have the psychic know-how to see and deal with these unwelcome visitors from beyond the grave. Lucy Carlyle is new to London, and finds a job with the only agency in town that is exclusively run by adolescents. Anthony Lockwood is the owner of Lockwood and Co, and as enigmatic as they come. Lucy is a talented psychic and Lockwood doesn’t ask too many questions. So now they are three. George is their researcher, Lockwood their point-man, and Lucy is the Listener and backup for Lockwood. When on what seems to be a routine assignment at a haunting, Lockwood and Co discover a sinister ghost with serious power, and a grisly secret. Barely surviving the encounter, the team is lead to the most haunted house in England, Combe Carey Hall, and the rumors of the Screaming Staircase.

I’m a huge fan of ghost stories. I don’t like horror in general, but I like a good spooky old-fashioned ghost story. This was perfect for me. It wasn’t nightmare-inducing but it was creepy in all the right kinds of ways. There was murder, ghosts, revenge, creepy whispers, lights, and sounds. It was a mystery and an adventure. I don’t much care for Lucy, but Lockwood is a strange kid that I’m dying to know what happened to him and his family. I can’t wait to uncover his story. The Screaming Staircase was a fun eerie read with a good humor and late-night story with a flashlight kind of tale.

I give it a 3.75 out of 5

Mustache Baby

By Bridget Heos

This is such a cute little picture book about the different stages that kids can go through, depicted through the different mustaches that this baby has. It’s cute and hilarious and I’d recommend it to adult and kid alike. The kids will get a kick out a baby with mustaches and the adults will laugh at the depictions of stereotypical mustaches to show whether the baby is good or bad. Because everyone knows that a big handle-bar mustache is not a good sign if you want a good guy in the family…

I give it a 3.5 out of 5

Counting by 7s

By Holly Goldberg Sloan

Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life…until now.

Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and revelation to read.

“The corpse blossom has bloomed.”

This is a 2015-2016 Nominee for the Children’s Library Association of Utah in the category of Young Adult Fiction, which is why I decided to read it. I don’t read all the nominees, but I do look for the ones that sound interesting and add my two cents to the voting. This book, in a similar tone to Wonder by R.J. Palacio, (which was amazing by the way), is about a young girl who defies labels. Highly intelligent, Willow Chance is a girl a reader just can’t help but like. She loves plants, gardening, and has a bamboo patch in her backyard as well as all kinds of flora and fauna. She loves studying diseases and is always on the look out for interesting cases in the people she passes on the street. This story is about her own coming of age, about how her differences make her able to help others even in the midst of her own problems. It’s not a book about grief, it’s a book about family, love, and acceptance of yourself. It’s a beautiful little story told in a lyrical way about Willow’s loss and how she comes to face it, and keep moving forward.

I give it a 4 out of 5

P.S. There are brief mentions of teen pregnancy and a small story of how Willow was adopted because her mother was infertile—and Willow explains scientifically the definition of infertility. It was a tad uncomfortable for me, but I’m highly sensitive. Just a fair warning. It’s mild. But it was there.