Button Hill

Starred review from January 1, 2015
A moment's messing with an odd clock plunges a lad into the strange and dangerous borderland between the living world and the realms of the dead in this decidedly offbeat chiller.Great-aunt Primrose's old house has no TV or Internet...but it does have a bone Nightclock hidden in the root cellar. Hardly has Dekker given its skull-shaped face a twist than he's engaged in a desperate game with a malign doppelganger-who plucks Dekker's heart out and escapes into the shadowy Nightside. Fortunately, even though Dekker begins to decompose (his annoying little sister, Riley, rightly dubs him "zombie boy"), Aunt Prim grows special tomatoes that work as temporary heart replacements. Unfortunately, for all her joking, Riley intrepidly sneaks off alone into the borderland to get his stolen life back. Impelled to follow, he plunges into a huge impending crisis: The mighty Nightclock at the final gateway to the realms of the dead has been forcibly stopped so that no spirits can get through at all. Though strewn with scary creatures and tons of spooky bones, the tale is also leavened with such tongue-in-cheek elements as a bustling "Bizarre" of the dead and borderland trains lit by lanterns hung in the rib cages of skeletal conductors. Both Dekker and Riley are admirably clever, and Bradford keeps the stakes satisfyingly high. Rare, scary fun. With tomatoes. (Horror. 11-13)

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March 1, 2015

Gr 4-6-Dekker discovers a mysterious clock in the cellar beneath the basement of his great aunt Primrose's old house. After twisting the skull that decorates the Nightclock and unknowingly opening the border between the living world (Dayside) and that of the dead (Nightside), mischievous Dekker inadvertently allows a sinister, pointy-toothed boy named Cobb to kidnap his sister and hide her in Nightside. To find Riley and return to Dayside before it is too late, Dekker embarks on a dangerous journey through a twisted world full of train-riding ghosts and skeleton gangs. Harper, a strange girl who traverses Dayside and Nightside, joins Dekker on his adventure, seeking her mother and an otherworldly music box that Cobb has stolen. The atmospheric descriptions of the spooky scenes and inhabitants of Nightside create a strong sense of place, and the children's well-crafted dialogue adds humor to balance macabre scenarios. Despite a slow start to the plot and some inconsistencies in the characters, the action unfolds at a steady pace that will keep readers curious about what happens next. VERDICT An additional purchase for those who like their fantasy with plenty of skeletons (and a soft-hearted zombie).-Whitney LeBlanc, Staten Island Academy, NY

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