Review by Booklist Review
Artie thinks he is ready to start middle school, but on the first day, he conks his head, angers the principal, injures the star athlete, and sets loose a classroom scorpion, among other disasters. For the next several days, he relives these events, and things grow worse until he encounters corpses rising from their graves in the school's basement. Stine seems to pull a cliched ending: the whole string of nightmarish scenarios appears to be a series of weird dreams resulting from gas at the dentist, but a final, fresh twist with a video game will make readers revisit the events. As usual, Stine takes the normal anxieties of childhood in this case, the first day at a new school and blends exaggerated humor with a few equally exaggerated moments of horror in a fast and goofy romp. Lots of fun for Stine fans.--Morning, Todd Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Blending comedy with his trademark brand of bestselling horror, Stine's take on a Groundhog Day-style premise stars a fifth grader stuck reliving his disastrous first day at a new school. Arriving at school with syrup in his hair and the front of his jeans soaked, Artie discovers he's been followed by his dog, who tears the principal's suit. Like falling dominoes, a sequence of debacles follows: Artie hits a popular boy with a baseball (and later causes him to fall and break his leg), lets the valuable class scorpion escape, has a spaghetti-related accident at lunch, and wanders into the girls' bathroom. There's some expected repetition as Artie's day replays, but Stine's embellishments-including plenty of chapter cliffhangers and a twist ending-keep things wickedly funny (Artie is a ready source of quips and one-liners) and increasingly ghoulish (on the second go-round, the dog bites the principal's hand; later, he bites the hand off). After bearing witness to the injuries, humiliations, and terrors that Artie faces, even readers' toughest days at school will feel like a breeze. Ages 9-12. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-In R. L. Stine's back-to-school tale of terror (Feiwel & Friends, 2011), everything goes wrong for Artie Howard, the new kid at Ardmore Middle School. His little brother squirts syrup in his hair at breakfast, and a truck splashes water on the front of his jeans on the way to school. After accidentally killing the class scorpion, Artie is sent to the bizarre book room in the basement and meets creepy Mr. Blister. The boy also makes an enemy of Brick, the most popular kid in school, knocking him unconscious with a baseball and later causing him to break his leg. Does the principal really tell Brick's teammates to beat up Artie after school? Then the boy wakes up as from a dream, and it's the first day of school again and again and again. Matthew Brown voices smart-mouthed Artie, capturing his mounting terror as oddly familiar events spiral out of control and his efforts to change things make matters worse. Surrounded by chattering mannequins, rotting corpses, and angry football players, Artie struggles to escape his first day of school. With its surprising and satisfying conclusion, this tale will not disappoint Stine's many fans-Mary Jean Smith, formerly Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
On Artie's first day of middle school, he alienates the star football player, the prettiest girl in school, and the principal, all in the first hour. What's worse is that subsequent school days duplicate the first. Creepy school basements and mysterious janitors heighten the tension of this very slight, humor-filled light horror tale. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A preteen horror take onGroundhog Day.Artie's first day at Ardmore Middle School starts off badly: Before he even leaves the house he's fallen out of bed, zapped himself plugging in the cellphone charger and been squirted with syrup by his little brother. It gets so radically worse that by the afternoon he's received the dismaying news that a gang has been dispatched to beat him up on the way home at the Principal's request. Before that can happen, to his astonishment, he's suddenly waking up in bed. Was it a dream? Hard to say, because again he falls out of bed, zaps himself, gets squirted and goes on to another first day that is nearly the same but even more disastrous. And then again. Each round gets shorter but weirder as Artie's struggles to head off catastrophes he knows are coming lead to bizarre accidents, wild chases, scary discoveries in the school's dank, dark basement and, at last, a truly memorable encounter with an oversized custodian who disintegrates into a pack of weasels. After that, it's almost a letdown when Stine explains Artie's misadventures with a logical and obvious revelation.Great fun as ever, supplied by genre's most prolific and reliable master.(Humorous horror fantasy. 9-11)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
