Review Detail

Night of the Squawker (Goosebumps SlappyWorld #18)

Middle Grade Fiction 281

Don't Drink the Power Juice!

December 12, 2023

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Cooper Klavan and his friend Denzel are trying to film a zombie movie in the woods near his house for entry in a film festival, but they are interrupted when Cooper's ornithologist parents want him to go on a fishing trip with them. Younger sister Anna is a bit annoying, and when she finds an large, odd bird near an experimental area, she wants to bring it home, even after it bites her. Once at home, Anna exhibits some odd symptoms; she's scared of her cat, pecks in the dirt, won't eat eggs, and sits around chirping! She even gets so high up in a tree that Cooper calls 911, only to have her be back on the ground by the time help arrives. Cooper decides to switch the theme of his movie to documenting his sister's odd behavior. The bird, whom she calls Oggie, escapes, but comes back, and Cooper becomes so alarmed when his sister collects twigs and leaves and builds a nest in her closet that he tells his parents what he has witnessed, but all of the evidence on his phone is erased. Oggie escapes, and Anna bites Cooper. Will he turn into a bird because of that, or is there something more evil going on in his household?

Good Points

There is something about Stine's writing that turns even the silliest "scare" into something riveting. The way he highlights sibling relationships and involves the parents in the situations adds a close-to-home familial feel that heightens the fright factor. What is more frightening than seeing one's sister turning into a bird? Not being believed when one tells an adult! This works especially well since Anna is only usually vaguely annoying, and it was also nice to see that Cooper involves her in his movies and seems to have some real affection for her.

The other very effective strategy is the cliff hanger endings to every chapter. Stine is a master of heightening tension, then gently bringing the reader back down by making the beginning of the next chapter something benign. This also keeps readers turning past the required chapter, in an effort to find out what is happening next!

This mixture of scary and goofy is somewhat hard to find, but readers who have raced through the entire Slappy's World series can also look to Lubar's Weenies short stories or Brallier's dystopia Last Kids on Earth books.