August 15, 2011
Creeping, invasive, blue-glowing mushrooms threaten to destroy a Maine town unless the intrepid hero, eighth-grader Eric, can fend them off.
Tanglewood, a town only vaguely depicted and not particularly evocative of Maine, may have been destroyed by eerie mushrooms once before, in the Colonial period—at least if the writings of a now-dead sci-fi author can be believed. With his parents' marriage on shaky ground and his clever 9-year-old brother Brian providing lots of challenges, Eric is headed for trouble. It comes first in a teasing incident with his fellow football-team members that gets out of hand, then when he aids a girl, Mandy, who has run away from the private girls' reform school his mother oversees, making it inevitable that he'll run afoul of the police. Meanwhile, the mushrooms keep spreading, invading and undermining homes, streets and the local school, a looming threat adults seem oblivious to—perhaps because they caught a glimpse of the book's disappointing, almost silly cover art. Eric's banter with friends and his younger brother, his inner dialogue as he analyzes his own behavior and his relationship with his parents all ring nicely true, but with the focus more on his interactions, the potential scariness of the evil mushrooms is never fully realized.
A biological thriller/mystery with a significant level of heart but insufficient horror. (Mystery. 10-14)(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
January 1, 2012
Gr 4-7-Things are far from perfect in Eric Parrish's quiet Maine town. He's been wrongly accused of being the school bully. His little brother, Brian, is super annoying. His dad is having a midlife crisis and has moved to Boston. Mom works at a boarding school for troubled girls and is completely preoccupied with finding Mandy, one of her students who has run away. There are also some very strange, glowing mushrooms in the woods behind the Parrish house, and they're spreading quickly. Eric feels that there's something sinister about them. When he accidentally discovers Mandy's hiding place, he keeps her secret because she also thinks the mushrooms are dangerous. Their sleuthing leads to a painting in a local museum that seems to depict the town, 200 years earlier, overrun with mushrooms. Legend has it that the whole town actually disappeared. Eric and Mandy set out to make sure that never happens again, but how do you fight an evil fungus? Scaletta takes what could potentially be a silly, far-fetched premise and manages to create a distinctly unsettling feel, as the mushrooms quietly sneak through the floorboards of the Parrishs' home, across the football field, and invade the lives of the residents of Tanglewood. Eric's parents, especially his father, are fully fleshed-out characters, and Brian goes beyond the typical frustrating little brother to downright heartwarming at times. Recommend to kids looking for a little shiver without a major scare.-Mandy Lawrence, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX
Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2012
Eric's father moves to Boston to get his college band back together. His mother spends most days searching for a runaway student. And glowing mushrooms are invading his Tanglewood, Maine, town. In this entertaining story, Eric cleverly conquers the challenges of baby-sitting his brother, caring for a dysfunctional pig, and solving a mystery that has haunted the town for decades.
(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)