Thursday, October 18, 2018

Review of The Haunted House Next Door by Andres Miedoso

Read for: Recently Added

Synopsis: "Meet Desmond Cole! A fearless eight-year-old who runs his own ghost patrol, looking for ghosts, monsters, and mischief makers everywhere. Oh, and he just so happens to be my new best friend…and thank goodness! Because I’m afraid of everything.

Welcome to Kersville, a town with a spooky history and a collection of ghosts and spirits who are major mischief-makers. Most kids spend their days without ever seeing or dealing with a ghost, but some kids get stuck with a haunt. When that happens, they call Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol. Desmond is the hall monitor of ghosts and monsters. There’s no job too spooky, icky, or risky for Desmond.

I’m not like that at all. My name’s Andres Miedoso. I’m Desmond’s best friend. We do everything together…including catch ghosts. Seems cool, right? There’s only one problem: I’m afraid of everything.

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol chapter books are perfect for emerging readers."

My Review: Munchkin received this book quite a while ago and I honestly thought about donating it because it was above his reading level and he is easily triggered for nightmares. I decided first to give it a read. I was pretty pleasantly surprised by this one, it turned out not to be as spooky as the title indicates. It is also a nice transitional book from beginning readers to early chapter books. I did find it a little odd how the mother calls Andres by a term in another language but it isn't clear what it means or what language, and that is the only time something is said in that language, so it seemed a bit out of place. Also even though this is just at the edge of Munchkin's reading abilities, there are some unexplained things that he would question (ie: how did he get the ghost goo off the couch without his parents finding out)? All in all though it turned out to be a pleasant surprise and I will keep it on the shelf for Munchkin to try.

My Rating: I am glad I held on to this book, it will be a nice way to bridge the gap from early reader to chapter books and it will be a good way for Munchkin to explore interests without it being too scary.  I give it a rating of Three paws.

2 comments:

  1. Yes! There needs to be more books that bridge that gap! Gnome is finally reading chapter books, but it was a struggle because to get her there. Gnome is also prone to nightmares, so I wonder if she would like this.

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    1. You can give it a try, it does seem to be geared towards boys but see if she likes it, there is a whole series of them of about 3 or 5 books now.

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