Category: Middle Grade
Length: 208 pages
Publisher: Audiocraft Publishing
Published: January 8, 2008
Back Cover: Everyone knows cooties don't really exist. Or do they? Tricia, Carlos and Tommy find out in a horrifying way that cooties are for real. Tiny, vicious insects whose bite turns humans into living, bloodthirsty zombies!
My review: Johnathan Rand's American Chillers books have been wildly popular with kids, rivaling the Goosebumps series. Each story is set in one of the US states and features a spooky premise. Although I wouldn't call this series great literature, they do one important thing very well-get younger kids reading.
While most adults will find these books formulaic and fairly predictable, the targeted age group adores them. I would not recommend these for a more mature reader, but those kids are probably scrounging up their own reading list.
The stories are short, relevant to the interests of this age group, and easy to process. All the books have a high gross-out factor, which will appeal to boys in particular. Every short chapter (and I mean short...some are only 2-3 pages long) ends with a cliffhanger. That will keep the readers coming back for more, eager to see what happens next.
To be honest, I didn't personally enjoy reading this. It had little adult appeal, but I can see that it would be a great choice for the majority of middle grade readers. If you have a child you're trying to convince to read more often, this is a good place to start.
Rating: 3 1/2 Stars
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