The Orphan of Awkward Falls

Gr 4—7—When Josephine Cravitz, 12, and her parents move to Awkward Falls, she explores the crumbling old mansion next door and finds a parentless boy living there. Thaddeus claims to be the grandson of the late Celcius Hibble, a famous local scientist. He eats mainly chocolate and his companions include a robot butler and a cat that he's raised from the dead. It's all relatively harmless-until Fetid Stenchley, a hunchbacked cannibal imprisoned in the town's Asylum for the Dangerously Insane, escapes. He's been locked up for murdering Hibble, who was his mentor, and he is terrifying and unpredictable from the get-go. He's got an insatiable taste for human flesh and a strong desire to return to the scene of his most heinous crime, the mansion that Thaddeus calls home. Crazy surprises abound, and every few chapters a jaw-dropping new twist emerges. You name it, it's in here: cloning, immortality, even a substantial nod to Frankenstein. A little scary, a little funny, and awfully suspenseful, this strange, campy tale will be a hit with fans of Greg Taylor's Killer Pizza (Feiwel & Friends, 2011). Spare black-and white sketches add to the book's frenetic feel. Deliciously creepy.—Mandy Lawrence, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX