School of Fear

I’m not going to mention how long this has been on the TBR pile. I’m not. It’s kind of embarrassing. Let’s just say that I’ve been meaning to read this for a long time.

The back cover of the book recommended it to fans of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, so I was a little bit wary – I really did not like A Series of Unfortunate Events, so wasn’t sure whether I would actually enjoy this one either. Thankfully, it was such an utterly adorable book that I worried all for naught!

There’s such a colourful bunch of characters here, from the quirky headmistress (who used to be a beauty queen) to her gambling lawyer, to the four children themselves, that it would have been hard not to like at least one character show more in this book. They’re all so amusing in their own little (or not-so-little) neurotic ways.

The children are all so different, and thrown into a dangerous situation where they have to learn to work together in order to save the day – stories like these are always such fun because the potential for so much conflict that you always want to cheer the characters on when they finally realize they need to put aside their differences in order to work towards a common goal.

School of Fear was extremely well paced too – there wasn’t a moment when I was wondering when we would get to something exciting. Right from the beginning, there’s so much to see and learn… whether about the characters, or the school, or how Mrs. Wellington (the headmistress) planned on curing the main characters of their fears when all she seemed to do was teach them how to be prepared for a beauty pageant.

I know I have mentioned her previously, but really, the headmistress was the highlight of this book for me. I absolutely adored everything about her! From the moment she first graced us with her presence, dressed like a 1950′s beauty pageant queen who lost her hair (and potentially her sanity) long ago. I mean, who else would have a whole room in her school dedicated to keeping really gross smelling things all catalogued in jars?

The Bottom Line
Very cute! I’m going to need to read the rest of the School of Fears book, and would highly recommend to fans of slightly bizarre middle-grade books. show less

(audio on playaway) Children's fiction (read aloud for 3rd grade and up / read alone for 4th-6th). The mp3 player actually malfunctioned around Ch. 27, so I never did find out how exactly the children defeated the ugly lawyer in purple, saved Macaroni the bulldog, and redeemed Abernathy, but I think we can safely presume that all of that happened, AND they conquered their fears. But I did enjoy this and I can see why/how it would be a successful series. Recommended for kids who enjoy the Mysterious Benedict Society and the Lemony Snicket series, and you might be able to convince the kids who like Goosebumps and maybe even the kids who like Wimpy Kid to give it a try as well.

Quirky, funny, and fast paced. Four children from varying backgrounds meet at an outrageous summer school designed to help them overcome their phobias.

Odd copy editing trivia point: the editor uses "backseat" but "front seat" throughout...

The book begins with four unrelated children each enrolling, some willingly, some less than willingly, into the mysterious, almost unknown, School of Fear for the summer. The four children each have a different phobia to conquer; bugs of all kinds, water, enclosed spaces and death or dying.
The blurb on the inside flap is completely misleading. It says the school is unusual to say the least but terrifying would be a more accurate description., and also says conquer your fears in six weeks or find out just how frightening failing can be. Neither description is true, and makes me wonder whether the person who crafted those sentences even read the book.
When the children arrive at the school, I started to lose interest. Based on the blurb, show more I was anticipating a strong, scary headmistress, and instead met the wacky Mrs. Wellington, a woman immersed in the beauty pageant world. Much of her vocabulary and advice to the children revolves around preparing them to be beauty pageant contestants. It got quite tiresome, and I kept waiting for the plot to pick up and address their phobias, but it took a while.
Spoiler alert.
The fake death of Mrs. Wellington, which wouldn't fool any reader, necessitates that the children conquer their fears, and the ending of the book was sudden and contrived. So, although it held great promise in the beginning, I did not enjoy two thirds of the book. Readers who enjoy the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events books would probably also enjoy this story. I felt a bit deceived, and the victim of some duplicitous marketing by both the title and the description. I think the publishers were trying to cash in on all the readers who love scary stories, and this is NOT even remotely scary. show less

Madeleine is deadly afraid of bugs, especially spiders. Theodore is petrified of dying. Lulu is scared of confined spaces. Garrison is terrified of deep water. The parents of these twelve-year-olds are desperate for help so they send them to the exclusive School of Fear. But the kids notice that a peculiar teacher and her strange teaching style are more frightening than their phobias. This may be the scariest summer of their lives.

Although this wasn’t quite what I expected it was a very clever and quirky book. I assumed it was going to be a scary story when it was actually a story about being scared. It wasn’t any less interesting, just different. The four children came from their homes in England, New York, Rhode Island and Florida show more to attend the secret school in a very tiny town in Massachusetts. Their fears had taken over and affected the lives of family and friends and extreme measures had to be taken. So begins a summer of comical and mysterious adventures as they seek “treatment” from the very odd Mrs. Wellington.

The unusual children with their specific characteristics reminded me a bit of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Lemony Snicket’s A Series if Unfortunate Events series. Although it’s a children’s book I enjoyed it myself and look forward to sharing this author’s debut with family. show less

Fun, quirky, decidedly odd. I enjoyed the characters (e.g. aging beauty queen in a wig, bug-phobic girl with a veil and insect repellant, caretaker, dogs named mac and cheese, etc). Interesting plot devices made this one a fun read. It's light and not as scary as the title might suggest. The plot got somewhat predictable toward the end, which is why I gave this one fewer stars than I might have if it had retained the suspense all the way through.

If I were to judge a book by its cover, I'd say that this book looks awesome! I love the illustrations on the front and those that are featured at the beginning of every chapter. (Reminded me of The Mysterious Benedict Society in that instance)

Aside of the overall look, the thing I liked most about the novel was the dialogue. Very fun and witty, I laughed out loud more than once. I enjoyed the interaction between the four kids and how you see them grow and develop as the story progresses. If anything, the lovely writing kept my attention the whole way through.

But what is keeping this book below 5 (even 4) star status, in my opinion, is the ending and the overabundance of "personality".

The buildup for the ending was okay (albeit show more repetitive) but when push came to shove, all the entertainment was jam packed in the last 50 or so pages. And not only was the end predictable (the twist became apparent in the middle of the book) but it was also incredibly rushed, only giving us enough detail to get by. It almost seemed like chunks of it were taken out just to make it fit under 350 pages, which is unfortunate. It gave it an incomplete feel and I felt there was much that could have been elaborated on.

And when you get a story that thrives on the quirkiness of its characters and plot line, there is the off chance that you over-do the amount of quirk in the story. And School of Fear just happened to be in that category. While I appreciated the unique voice each character had, toward the middle and the end of the story, it just became a bit too much. The four kids were threatening to cross that line from quirky into annoying more than once (although, I think Theo did cross it multiple times) and Mrs. Wellington, the eccentric instructor, spent her time across that line throughout the book.

Speaking of the characters, another thing that made me somewhat detached towards the story was how hard it was identify with any of them. I found myself on the side of indifference rather than actually being involved in their lives and the journey they were on.

Lastly, the cover uses words such as "fear", "terrifying", "worse than ____" and I do feel like those are misleading. This book is far from scary, relying more on insinuating "scary" adventure instead of experiencing it.

I don't mean to come off so negative because, for the most part though, I did enjoy it. It's a cute book, even with the sometimes over-the-top characters. Gitty's writing style is simple yet enjoyable and the humor, for the most part, is really quite funny. I didn't exactly begin the book with any expectations and I think that helped my take on it. Overall consensus, it's just a fun, light read.

The ending did hint at a continuation of the series, but I haven't heard if there will be a book 2 in the near future or not. show less