School for Villains

Gr 5–8—Below the dank and dangerous town of Tumblewater is an even more repugnant community of sewers and mud, where the citizens of this small borough have fled from the loathsome Caspian Prye. Daniel Dorey, the young storyteller from the author's Grisly Tales from Tumblewater (Macmillan, 2010), is not only searching for his kidnapped sister, but is also being hunted by the heinous Caspian, his villainous police force, and a robotic assistant. Daniel's only clue, left by the witch who hid his sister away, is a mysterious and ancient key. To his dismay, Daniel is sent by "Uncle", the guardian of the underground, to the School for Villains, where he is to learn the fine arts of knife-fighting, lock-picking, thievery, and surgery (practiced on fresh corpses). The cast of characters that Daniel encounters, both above and below ground, is beyond strange; they include an eccentric recluse who lives in a most unusual tower and who can eavesdrop on anyone in the town, and the young boy ghosts who inhabit abandoned houses. As he tries to discover the significance of the key and how it is connected to his sister's disappearance, Daniel collects several ghastly and grisly tales, which are told to him (and to readers) between chapters. These tales are not for the faint-hearted, and often involve gruesome deaths, murders, and lots of blood. While the various threads and characters all come together a bit too neatly in the end, readers who enjoy being repulsed and frightened will devour this macabre tale.—MaryAnn Karre, West Middle School, Binghamton, NY