The Wish

Gr 6–10—A new addition to the "Tartan House" series, The Wish features scrawny high schooler Robert, who has found himself in a fight with the biggest kid at Grove Park High. When his wish to win the fight is miraculously granted, strange things start happening. Alex triggers strange events of his own in The Dark Lens, opening a world full of ghoulish creatures with a mystical lens. When Sam and his friends find a dangerous video game called The 13th Floor, they are so entranced by the violence and gore that they are unable to stop playing, even when bad things happen in real life. In Wolf High, Alex Hughes is on his way to becoming a violent werewolf with no recollection of his old identity, unless his mom can find the cure for the drug she created in the first place. All titles have center-justified text with plenty of white space per page, along with a "Questions to Think About" section for further discussion. With enough gore and chills to satisfy middle and high schoolers, the text is at a fifth grade reading level.