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Book Review: Night of the Living Toilet Paper (Alien Survival Guide #2) by Kevin Garone

Night of the Living Toilet Paper bookcover

Night of the Living Toilet Paper (Alien Survival Guide #2) by Kevin Garone

Temor Press, 2025

ISBN: 9788991328449

Available: Hardcover, paperback, ebook edition (pre-order)

Buy: Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

The irresistible, alien-chasing young scamps are back! Thankfully, author Garone thought his prior book, I Know What UFO Did Last Summer, was good enough to continue the story. Night, while a bit different in scope, has all the charm and enchantment of the original.

 

In Night, original members Marvin (code name: Gold Leader), Jace (code name: Baller One) and Nora (code name: Space Cadet) all return, and they have expanded their ranks to include Kenji Kowahara (code name: Pyro). You can guess what his specialty/obsession is!

 

The story finds the four of them trying to destroy a giant animated mass of toilet paper, which is under control of a Sleech, one of the creatures from the first book. It’s a good story and written as well as the first: it’s just a bit smaller/more focused in scope. The first book had the team in a few different places, (woods, a super secret lab) and tackling a few different related problems. This time, it’s pretty much the team vs. the paper monster in their neighborhood: that’s the crux of almost all the story. Does it work? Yes, very well, it just isn’t as broad of a plot. Think of it as a smaller version of the original, but just as good (kind of like those downloadable expansions they do for video games these days).

 

There are some good modifications from the first book. For one, the kids really don’t get any help this time. It’s up to them alone to use their ingenuity and make the right decisions to outwit the creature, and that’s what makes the characters and their specialties stand out. Marvin and Jace are still good as team leader and tactics officer, respectively, but Nora’s character plays a bigger role this time, with her developing abilities as a backyard mechanic proving critical to the team. Kenji also has a big part, as his fire obsession comes in very handy when the team is on the defensive against the TP monster. As before, it’s the comradeship between them all that carries the story. The author may be planning ahead, as there are some very slight hints that the kids may be starting to mature. They have to deal with the actual loss of a person– a minor character– but a loss nevertheless, and there are a couple other subtle hints.

 

Bottom line is, if you liked the first one, you don’t want to miss this. It has all the characteristics that made the first one such a pleasant surprise. Whether they are trying to use an inflatable mattress as a boat, or riding motorcycles while spitting flames, it’s hard to avoid loving the antics of Marvin and his team. Certainly recommended!

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on July 26, 2025 by , Reply

Book Review: Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting (Serwa Boateng #1) by Roseanne A. Brown

Cover art for Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting by Roseanne A. Brown

Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting (Serwa Boatang #1) by Roseanne A. Brown

Rick Riordan Presents, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1368066365

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

This is a wild ride of a book. Serwa Boateng is a Ghanaian-American (born in Ghana) 12 year old, the daughter of Slayers of vampires called adze, who look like fireflies and can possess people, and obaifyo, witches who use black magic. She has always been homeschooled, but after a supernatural attack on her home, her parents are sent on a mission she can’t be a part of and she is sent to live with her Aunt Latricia and cousin Roxy in Rocky Gorge, Maryland, a supernatural dead zone, where she will have to attend middle school and deal with microaggressions, hostility, racism, and an adze who has crossed into the dead zone, without help from her parents or the council that directs their missions.

 

When Serwa accidentally starts a food fight in home ec, she and four other students end up with detention, picking up trash in and around the school. While picking trash in the woods, they are attacked by an adze, and when Serwa explains what’s happening, they want to help. Eujun used to be friends with Roxy but when forced to pick between friends picked popular mean girl Ashley. Gavin is Black and a jokester. Mateo is Guatemalan and a model student, who stutters. Roxy’s father has been deported to Ghana. Their teacher, Mrs. Dean, has it out for Serwa, who she calls Sarah Boating, and Serwa thinks she is the adze.

 

The kids are terrible fighters and have no magic. Serwa calls on the earth goddess with a request to bless them with divine wisdom. They are sent to the underworld to retrieve her sword, which never stops fighting. Their mission is successful, and also incredibly funny. The goddess gives the kids divine wisdom and an elemental blessing that will let them draw on the power of their element.

 

The art teacher, Mr. Riley. reveals that the origin of the dead zone is unique because his ancestor, who had divine wisdom, and Roxy’s, who had black magic, combined them to protect enslaved people during a rebellion.

 

Ghanaian mythology is not something I was familiar with, so this was a fresh approach to the “chosen one” storyline. Serwa has a distinct voice and point of view that make her stand out from the current crop. While the story is sometimes predictable, I was wowed by the energy and rage at the end. Never underestimate a teenager in an emotional storm. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on July 28, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

It’s the first day of the #TransRightsReadathon, so to start it out right here’s a review of a recent favorite middle-grade novel I really enjoyed. You can’t go wrong with cryptids!

 

cover art for Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow.

Harry N. Abrams, 2023

ISBN: 9781419764400

Available: Hardcover

Buy:  Bookshop.org

 

 

This middle grade verse novel dealing with grief, identity, and monstrosity is lyrical and vivid. Sixth graders Lewis and Noah (closeted trans boys) have been best friends for years. Lewis has a great imagination and Noah is pulled along in his wake in exploring all kinds of strange things. In the time just before Lewis was killed in a car crash, he had been obsessed with cryptids, especially Mothman. Noah deals with the loss by writing journal entries to Mothman in a journal he leaves in the woods each night. He wants to believe that Mothman is real even if he can’t see him, and decides to do his science fair project on whether Mothman exists.

 

Noah also begins to make friends with Molly, Hanna, and Alice, and develop feelings for Hanna, while slowly coming out and deciding how much of himself, and Mothman, he wants to share.

 

Although he is outed to his classmates before he’s ready, the people around him accept the news pretty quickly, even if they don’t entirely understand. Unfortunately, they are not as accepting of the existence of Mothman, which leads him to run away to do a solitary search in the woods that changes him, helps him deal with his grief over Lewis, and move forward.

 

Noah is autistic and that comes through clearly and is written with respect and sensitivity, as is the bisexuality of two of the characters.

 

Noah’s grappling with monstrosity, magic, and the unknown isn’t subtle, but Gow gets the kinds of thoughts on paper that you would expect a journal of private thoughts (or written to a cryptid of dubious existence) to contain. In the acknowledgements. Gow credits a childhood fascination with monsters with his ability to understand his own identity. Recommended for grades 5-8.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

 

 

 

Posted on March 22, 2024 by , Reply
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