Review: Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow by Katy Towell

Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow by Katy Towell.

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 2011
List Price: $16.99
ISBN-13: 9780375868597

Review: When they cross the room, the watching girls' index fingers follow them. Maggie, Adelaide, and Beatrice have suffered endless teasing and name calling, and they are known as "Scary Children" by their classmates. The book, ! Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow by Katy Towell, centers around three girls and their unnatural talents. When the citizens of Widowsbury start vanishing, the outcasts must unite and with the help of Steffen, try to find out what has happened to them, and how to bring them back. Will these unlikely heroines be able to find the lost citizens and bring them back, or will they be sucked up in the abductions too?

Adelaide has the startling characteristics of a werewolf. She can scent people from about ½ a mile away, distinguish substances clearly from about a ¼ mile away, and hear people from over a mile away. Maggie, on the other hand is uncomfortably strong. I'm talking strong as in she can carry a whole mantelpiece jam-packed of enormous heavy dictionaries in one hand, and without breaking a sweat either. Beatrice, claims to see ghosts, and oddly enough, has befriended some dead animal spirits. If they are to find out where their beloved librarian has gone, they're going to have to unite and travel the path in which many have taken before their death. Will they be able to find out what has happened to their librarian, and will they be able to rescue here before it's too late? How much longer will they have until their taken away too?

Katy Towell, is a great writer, and if she can accomplish this mind-blowing book, I can guarantee that she's able to create another one just as marvelous. Skary Childrin is something I'd like to keep reading. This book, ! Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow , is an amazing, book, and I'm hoping that Katy Towell will write a sequel. I loved her descriptive words and I'm pretty sure that she loved every page, because I did. In the book the page I kept flipping back to was the page that had the song, "Scar-y chil-dren, Scar-y chil-dren, Where are they? Where are they? You can't run from Maggie! Adelaide will smell thee! Beatrice cries! Then you die!!" It is sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques". My favorite character is Adelaide, because I thought she is most like me, no, not with the werewolf stuff, or the teasing, or saving the world. But the temper, the screaming, and the crying are all behaviors I possess on weekly biases. Well, maybe not the screaming and crying, mostly just the temper. If I become a librarian, I would put at least 4-5 copies of this book in the library. Anyhow, I rate Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow 5 stars, because of how well the girls work together and how this is a gripping modern-day mystery.

Review written by Tam (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow for this review.

Have you read Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow? How would you rate it?