From School Library Journal
Grade 6–9—In this entertaining collection of three dozen short stories, Lubar creates characters who will quickly engage readers. The selections range between two and six pages in length. Some are humorous, such as the title story, which involves middle schoolers in a hot-pepper-eating contest, while others are moralistic horror tales, such as "The Ratty Old Bumbershoot," in which a boy is eaten by an umbrella that he "borrows" but has no intention of returning. Still others are science fiction, as in "Galactic Zap," in which a video game created by aliens is placed on Earth and anyone who gets good at it is eliminated to help ensure a quick takeover of the planet. Most readers will find something here to their liking.—
Valerie Davis, Campbell County Public Library, Newport, KY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Lubar’s creativity is still going strong in these 35 short stories that present suspenseful, surreal tales about an umbrella that ate a boy, a carnival ride that makes sausage out of its young riders, killer mannequins, a Just Like Me doll that consumes a mother’s wicked affections, and birds that take vengeance on a boy and his BB gun. Some selections seem to have an underlying environmental message, as in the story of the vegan family devoured by turkeys on Thanksgiving and the non-green family whose huge SUV is attacked by dinosaurs. As in Lubar’s other fiction collections, such as Invasion of the Road Weenies (2005), the back of the book features short paragraphs on the author’s inspiration for each piece. Taken together, these scary stories and urban legends will delight reluctant and ravenous readers alike. Grades 4-7. --Andrew Medlar
