Vlad the Rad

July 1, 2019

K-Gr 2-This story is about a young vampire with a passion for skateboarding who attends Miss Fussbucket's School of Spooks. His teacher wants him to focus on his lessons to become more spooky; but Vlad has little interest in being spooky, and wants to continue skateboarding despite the disapproval of his class. This book uses a dark palette of purples and blues to illustrate the ghostly setting and other monster students at Vlad's school. Movement is often illustrated with a series of drawings in a linear pattern, highlighting the scene's small changes. Lines capture the movement of Vlad's skateboard as it whips around corners and soars through the air. The font in the book also becomes bolder to emphasize important phrases and happenings. Children will relate to Vlad's desire to pursue his passion despite being criticized by those around him. VERDICT Vlad's dedication to skateboarding will inspire kids to commit to pursuing their own passions even in the face of possible challenges.-Deanna Smith, Pender County Public Library, NC

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019
A vampire who loves to skateboard has to up his game to convince his classmates and teacher that skateboarding can be spooky. Vlad attends Miss Fussbucket's School for Aspiring Spooks, which has a very diverse student body that includes a cyclops, a demon, a siren, and an anthropomorphic black cat in addition to other young ghouls and vampire Vlad. None of them share Vlad's enthusiasm for skateboarding (they call him "Bad Vlad" the show-off), and Vlad just keeps racking up warnings from Miss Fussbucket about skateboarding at school until he earns a detention. As he writes lines on the chalkboard, he wonders why he can't combine the two things he's good at to please Miss Fussbucket. Well, the opportunity to do just that comes during the field trip to the natural history museum. Vlad sees the curving backbone of the giant dinosaur skeleton and just can't resist--and the trick, combined with his screeching and hissing, sends the human museumgoers running away in fright, his classmates and teacher applauding him for being "radically terrifying." Moldy green with highlights of red and the hot pink of Vlad's skateboard pop against the more sedate backgrounds of the extremely staid school and pages of negative space. Readers will enjoy the prim-and-proper uniform-clad child monsters. Would that every student could find a way to combine what they love with their schoolwork. (Picture book. 4-8)

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September 2, 2019
A skateboarding-obsessed vampire’s lack of interest in all things frightening irritates his headmistress in this tale by the illustrator of the Uni the Unicorn books. “Why can’t you be more like your classmates and eerily float to class? Or ooze down the hallway quietly?” the founder of Miss Fussbucket’s School for Aspiring Spooks asks as Vlad skates through a throng of students (two demons, a cyclops, and a black cat among them). Vlad’s whizzing skateboard earns repeated reprimands and casts him as a “show-off” and “Bad Vlad” among his classmates. Finally, on a field trip to a museum, Vlad impresses the entire school by combining spookiness with skateboarding, zooming down a dinosaur skeleton and terrifying the other patrons. The single-note antagonism wears a tad thin throughout, but outré pictures of Vlad’s classmates and over-the-top facial expressions should elicit chuckles. Ages 3–7.