Curses Are the Worst (Scared Silly #1)
by Elizabeth Eulberg (Author)
Goosebumps meets The Baily School Kids in this young middle-grade series about four unlikely friends who must band together to save their town from an evil curse!
WARNING: This book contains a very scary and silly story about a long-dormant witch's curse that's been unleashed on the unsuspecting town of Cauldron's Cove. It's revenge, over three hundred years in the making. (Hey, better late than never!)
When Regan, Sofia, Bennett, and Darius unfairly get put into detention, they know something is wrong. And they're right: This detention is far from ordinary. Their science teacher, Ms. Stein, believes that by using these kids' DNA she can create an army of "perfect" students who have Sofia's smarts, Regan's heart, Bennett's likeability, and Darius's loyalty. Soon the clones are wreaking havoc around town and getting the real kids in trouble!
Will the kids be able to save the town or will they be cursed for eternity? There's only one way to find out and fair warning, dear reader, you should definitely read this with the lights on.
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Publishers Weekly
Opening with a content warning send-up ("broccoli, lightning, annoying siblings") and quickly traveling back in time, Eulberg (The Best Worst Summer) starts this lively series kickoff with a brief look at the Salem witch trials. Parenthetical-studded prose details the flight of witch Ann Wilder from Salem to small-town Cauldron's Cove, where Wilder is blamed for an errant bolt of lightning and burned at the stake--and where a mathematical error causes her dying curse to remain dormant for 331 years. "Fast-forward to the time of the internet, long hot showers, and flushing toilets," where, in contemporary Cauldron's Cove, 10-year-old Regan Charles, who's dyslexic and has an auditory-processing condition, finds herself in detention despite having done nothing wrong. As beloved science teacher Ms. Stein begins to enact Ann Wilder's late-breaking revenge, Regan and her fellow detention denizens--sporty, blond Bennett Norland; his megasmart future stepsister, Sofia Vargas; and mayor's son Darius Washington, a superhero fan--are thrown into a high-stakes adventure around the witch's curse. Nonstop wordplay and an anonymous, fourth-wall-breaking narrator make for a spirited adventure. Most characters read as white; Sofia and Darius are described as having brown skin. Ages 8-12. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary. (Mar.)
Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
Praise for the Scared Silly series:
"Frightfully funny. Scared Silly is so hilarious and creepy I nearly peed my pants — twice!" — Max Brallier, author of the New York Times bestselling The Last Kids on Earth series
JUV019000 - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories
JUV018000 - Juvenile Fiction | Horror
JUV052000 - Juvenile Fiction | Monsters
Cloning
Middle schools
