Review: Scary School by Derek the Ghost

Title: Scary School
Author: Derek the Ghost
Illustrator: Scott M. Fischer
Series: Scary School
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: June 21, 2011
How Received: For Review
Rate: 4.5

Summary (as quoted from Amazon) You think your school's scary?
Get a load of these teachers:
Ms. Fang, an 850-year-old vampire
Dr. Dragonbreath, who just might eat you before recess
Mr. Snakeskin—science class is so much more fun when it's taught by someone who's half zombie
Mrs. T—break the rules and spend your detention with a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex!
Plus
Gargoyles, goblins, and Frankenstein's monster on the loose
The world's most frighteningly delicious school lunch
And
The narrator's an eleven-year-old ghost!
Join Charles "New Kid" Nukid as he makes some very Scary friends—including Petunia, Johnny, and Peter the Wolf—and figures out that Scary School can be just as funny as it is spooky!

My thoughts:
Scary School was a very fun, interesting book.

The story is told through the eyes of Derek the Ghost, a kid who wanted to be a writer when he was alive, so when he came back to life as a ghost, he decided that he’d live his dream anyway. His first project? A very detailed account of life at Scary School, the school where Derek died, and where he still hangs out.

Scary School isn’t just any old school ; the faculty members are all different types of monsters, and the students range from werewolves to zombies to petunia ladies to humans. Now, while it is obviously super dangerous for humans to go to a school filled with all sorts of supernatural creatures, Principal Headcrusher (yes, she actually does crush peoples heads) says that kids learn better when they are afraid. Believing that, parents send their kids to Scary School so that they can receive the best education.

But this particular story isn’t about kids getting eaten and then being transformed into monsters (even though it is mentioned, more than you might think!) This story is about the time when Scary School was picked to host the annual Ghoul Games, a tournament between kids from all types of supernatural schools. Principal Headcrusher, who is mostly human, is thrilled to be the host of the Ghoul Games, for this is the first time humans will be allows to participate. But Mr. Wolfbark, the brains of the tournament, hates humans, and he isn’t happy that they are going to be allowed to fight against monsters. So he changes the rules of the tournament ; victors, if they are monsters, get to eat the humans they beat, and humans, if they are victors, get to have lollipops. Will the Scary School students win, or will Mr. Wolfbark come out on top?

I really had no answer to the above question until the end of the book. I loved all of the characters - except, of course, for Mr. Wolfbark- and all of them really cracked me up. Some of them made me laugh just by the way like they spelled their names! Like, for example, the three Rachel’s : Rachael, Raychel, and Frank (pronounced Rachel). There were so many awesome kids in this book, and the teachers were like little kids themselves with how funny and silly they were. There was no cliffhanger at the end, but I’m still dying to know what happens next. Scary School is a fun, spooky, quick read that you should definitely check out if you are looking for a good laugh.
4.5/5
~Moujnir