Teacher's Pest

March 1, 2013
Insectile legions led by demons from dimensions beyond threaten poor beleaguered Lovecraft Middle School. When last readers left seventh-grader Robert Arthur, he had just saved the students of LMS (and by extension, the world) for a second time from the encroachments of Cthulhuian otherness and the insanity of crazed physicist Crawford Tillinghast. Unfortunately, Robert had also helped one of Tillinghast's minions get elected student body president. Now that president, Howard Mergler, seems to have a secret plan to further his master's scheme to take over first the school and then our whole dimension. Only Robert, his two-headed rat, his erstwhile bully Glenn and ghost girl Karina stand in the way. Glenn's acting weird (even for him), and Robert fears his mind may not be his own. Is the world doomed? Gilman's third Lovecraft Middle School title continues the unearthly adventures of Robert and his friends as they defend the school from extradimensional attack. The motion-activated cover of Howard morphing into a giant fly will attract attention, and the often funny (and not-too-scary), easy-on-the-brain text will keep readers reading. It is more advisable with this volume than the first sequel, The Slither Sisters (2012), that readers start with the first, but it's still not vital. Good, gross and ghoulish. Thankfully Substitute Creature's only a summer away. (Humorous horror. 9-12)

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August 1, 2013
Grades 4-6 This latest entry in the reliable Tales from Lovecraft Middle School series finds the evil Crawford Tillinghast and his summoned beastsexisting just beyond the living realm of the schoolrounding up the troops for the upcoming Great War. Who are the troops? Bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. Robert and Glenn first notice the infestation via a horrendous ice outbreak, but soon the halls are seething with ants, fleas, gnats, mosquitoes, and more. When the creatures disappear beneath the school to bulk up on meals of trash, the boys, plus ghost girl Karina, scuttle down the service tunnels to do a little exterminationand rescue their two-headed pet rat, of course. As always, Gilman punctuates the fast-moving action and gross-out set pieces (including a Dumpster full of maggots) with the delicate matters of young friendships. Smith's black-and-white illustrations are a big boon, especially when conveying the bizarre (a pile of goo with multiple eyeballs). The 3-D cover will grab 'em. And you can reassure horror addicts more volumes are slithering our way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2013
In these two entries featuring murderous reptiles and insects, the saga of a ghost and her two best (human) friends, and a creepy school that may destroy the world, continues. The dialogue is amusing and the character development is sound, but the plot is now feeling formulaic, and the villains waver between hopelessly inept and terrifyingly powerful as needed.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)