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

"School of Fear" is a very unique and funny tale aimed at children 9-12 years of age. My son is a good reader and ten years old but I am not sure if this book would hold is attention because it is fairly long and there some innuendos and witty banter I don't know if he would understand. "School of Fear" is the tale of four 12 to 13 year old kids who come from all differnt parts of the globe. The one thing they share is that they all have an over the top phobia. Their parents are ready to take extreme action and send them off for a summer at the "School of Fear". No one knows much about the school. They keep things pretty well hidden and clients must take a secrecy oath. What the kids find in the school is interesting and clever. The show more book isn't scary and doesn't have any form of paranormal aspects. While the kids feel like the events they experience are out of this world, really every thing is well explained later. The book has a twist at the end, and its a good twist, but one I had mostly figured out for myself. Kids should be suprised by the ending. This book was definitely worth the read and I found it entertaining. However, the book is long yet not long enough. The end of the story felt very rushed. The story starts at a nice pace, detailing each of the children and the events that lead them to the school. Once they get to the school things move too quickly. When the ending comes, it feels like not enough attention has been paid to it. As the kids each experience their big confrontation with their fears, it seems like not enough emphasis is placed on it. Still a good read, and if you have a reader in the targeted range, this would be a good book to point in their direction. show less

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

(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.

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.