Paranormal Pick: Dead Is Just a Dream

Dead Is Just a Dream
by Marlene Perez
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2013
176 pages

Available September 3, 2013

Something sinister is going on in the little town of Nightshade, California. Jessica Walsh and her band of friends each have gifts--reading people's thoughts, seeing the future, being female warriors who protect the town. When Jessica sees a ghost horse on the beach, the first murder is reported.

A rude painter shows up in town with a show of his gruesome paintings and a new owner buys Phantasm Farms, a local horse farm. The girls have to find out who or what's killing people and soon!

After a visit to Phantasm Farms, Jessica thinks that the ghost horse, the nightmares, the painter and the strange girl who can talk to horses are all tied together. Something is killing people with fear. Dreams begin haunting her friend Eva but she can't remember what the terror is exactly.

Caught up in the case, Jessica has to juggle her high school classes, her relationship with hot boyfriend Dominic and his burgeoning music career, her very crowded family home, the arrival of her older brother from college, and policing the town of Nightshade from evil. Residents in Nightshade aren't sleeping and Jessica has to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Dead is Just a Dream is a delightful paranormal read with a little Beverly Hills, 90210 and The Secret Circle mixed in. There's the rich kids and fancy cars and there's the circle of paranormal friends who live "normal" lives when not chasing evil or destroying monsters.

Marlene Perez has the teen scene down pat and readers will fall under her spell. Cover art with the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) skull may be off-putting to some readers--the kids attend a huge party on The Day of the Dead at a mansion. While the cover isn't that "girl-y" or romantic, fans of the series will read this book.

Highly recommended grade 7-up. No language. Just sweet kisses...oh, and sinister murder.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive moentary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)

Middle School Pick

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
by Jeff Kinney
Amulet Books, 2009.
217 pages

The fourth book in the Wimpy Kid series is a real joy. Jeff Kinney keeps the laughter coming with Greg Heffley's summer vacation--which turns out to be no real vacation at all. Greg recounts the grisly story of the muddy hand which can travel mysteriously across the United States and sneak up on unsuspecting middle school boys and kill them! His fear of the muddy hand causes much anxiety and sleep loss, until he finds a way to sleep with his entire face under the covers. He spends one night sleeping in the bathtub with all the bathroom lights on. Ridley, Greg's older brother, is his devious, bullying self. Greg's mom tries to start a Reading is Fun club for all the neighborhood children, but only has one member by the second meeting--Greg, of course!

Greg is terrified to go to the public pool, not because he's afraid of water, but because he's afraid of having to enter the pool area through the men's showers! Greg says, "The first time I walked through the men's locker room at the town pool was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life." The illustration with this statement shows really hairy men showering in a "common" shower and Greg looking mortified. Kinney's illustrations are spot on, and readers who enjoy a good joke will love this book.

Recommended for all collections, grades 4-up. Recommended for reluctant readers.