Room 13

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful surprise
Review: I'm not even sure why I grabbed this one off the bookshelf, but I definitely recommend it for those who love thrillers with sly humor and memorable characters. A must for English majors sick of the traditional dead white male reading list.

Rating:
Summary: Werewolf?
Review: The title leaves much to the imagination, and ghost stories are a blessing from mundane novelling anytime. However, 'Room 13' is a far cry from a blessing in disguise.

The tale of a teacher in a classroom haunted by a previous eccentric teacher is a great plot, but the werewolf fitted throughout the book should have been left out. It doesn't fit the story at all. And the novel had a great basis without it.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful surprise
Review: This is another boonie dog book review from Wolfie and Kansas. The plot of Henry Garfield's "Room 13" sounds like the plot of a "Goosebumps" story for puppies. This novel involves a haunted high school classroom and a school busdriver, Cyrus "Moondog" Nygerski, who may be a werewolf. While this sounds like a description of an episode of Nickelodeon's "Who's Afraid of the Dark?", this novel is actually very clever and suspenseful. "Room 13" will hold the attention of the adult reader.

We do have two reservations about "Room 13". First, this book reflects the biased human assumption that lycanthropy is some sort of problem or disease. We think that any condition that makes a human more canine-like could be an improvement. Second, there was one item in this book that put too much strain on our willing suspension of disbelief. We can accept werewolves and ghosts. However, before becoming a busdriver, Moondog Nygerski allegedly played minor league baseball--as a left-handed second baseman! We know a little about humans playing fetch, and a southpaw second baseman in professional baseball is a little too farfetched even for a ghost story. This little problem aside, we liked the Moondog character. We hope that someday he can meet up with one of our other favorite fictional heroes, Rex Miller's Daniel "Chaingang" Bunkowski

Rating:
Summary: Goosebumps for grownups
Review: This is another boonie dog book review from Wolfie and Kansas. The plot of Henry Garfield's "Room 13" sounds like the plot of a "Goosebumps" story for puppies. This novel involves a haunted high school classroom and a school busdriver, Cyrus "Moondog" Nygerski, who may be a werewolf. While this sounds like a description of an episode of Nickelodeon's "Who's Afraid of the Dark?", this novel is actually very clever and suspenseful. "Room 13" will hold the attention of the adult reader.

We do have two reservations about "Room 13". First, this book reflects the biased human assumption that lycanthropy is some sort of problem or disease. We think that any condition that makes a human more canine-like could be an improvement. Second, there was one item in this book that put too much strain on our willing suspension of disbelief. We can accept werewolves and ghosts. However, before becoming a busdriver, Moondog Nygerski allegedly played minor league baseball--as a left-handed second baseman! We know a little about humans playing fetch, and a southpaw second baseman in professional baseball is a little too farfetched even for a ghost story. This little problem aside, we liked the Moondog character. We hope that someday he can meet up with one of our other favorite fictional heroes, Rex Miller's Daniel "Chaingang" Bunkowski

Rating:
Summary: Goosebumps for grownups
Review: This is another boonie dog book review from Wolfie and Kansas. The plot of Henry Garfield's "Room 13" sounds like the plot of a "Goosebumps" story for puppies. This novel involves a haunted high school classroom and a school busdriver, Cyrus "Moondog" Nygerski, who may be a werewolf. While this sounds like a description of an episode of Nickelodeon's "Who's Afraid of the Dark?", this novel is actually very clever and suspenseful. "Room 13" will hold the attention of the adult reader.

We do have two reservations about "Room 13". First, this book reflects the biased human assumption that lycanthropy is some sort of problem or disease. We think that any condition that makes a human more canine-like could be an improvement. Second, there was one item in this book that put too much strain on our willing suspension of disbelief. We can accept werewolves and ghosts. However, before becoming a busdriver, Moondog Nygerski allegedly played minor league baseball--as a left-handed second baseman! We know a little about humans playing fetch, and a southpaw second baseman in professional baseball is a little too farfetched even for a ghost story. This little problem aside, we liked the Moondog character. We hope that someday he can meet up with one of our other favorite fictional heroes, Rex Miller's Daniel "Chaingang" Bunkowski