Skip to main content

Ghoulia


Ghoulia
(Ghoulia #1)
By Barbara Cantini
Amulet Books, 2018. Intermediate.

Sometimes, making new friends is a little bit tricky—especially when you’re a zombie girl, and your aunt is dead-set against you having a social life. “Ghoulia” is about a young zombie girl in that exact predicament. All she wants is to make friends, and have somebody to play with. Unfortunately, zombies aren’t usually well-received, socially. Her family is sure that it’ll be a disaster, so she’s forbidden from leaving their haunted house to make new friends.

Cantini plays with a lot of fun details in this spooky but sweet read. For example, Ghoulia’s life is a little bit wacky, and it shows in the funny illustrations, such as her uncle’s disembodied head being used as a jewelry box. Young readers feeling excited about making new friends will relate to Ghoulia’s enthusiasm, especially the ones who like things a little bit spooky or unique.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...