By Jack Meggitt-Phillips
Illustrated by Isabelle Follath
4Rbooks: 4/6, grades 4-8
Amazon rating: 4.8/5, grades 4-8
Good Reads: 4.12/5
Common Sense Media: Not Reviewed
Pages 261
Synopsis:
The beast is back, but Ebenezer and Bethany don’t know it yet. They get rid of many of the beast’s gifts to Ebenezer (not his idea), but they keep coming back. They try to be do-gooders, but nothing seems to work right. Bethany wants to change her reputation, but nobody wants to give her a chance.
Things continue to go wrong. Bethany decides to throw an apology party, but it doesn’t go as planned. She decides it’s time for revenge. Claudette wants to perform a concert for everyone, but she isn’t well, and her personality is changing. Ebenezer is trying to adjust to his new life without the beast, and has a new friend, Mr. Clinke who requires a lot of attention.
It seems like something, or someone, is trying to thwart their plans and sabotage their attempts to be better people.
Parental Guidance: medium high - high
There’s a new child at the orphanage, Gloria, who bullies the other
children. She is there because her parents couldn’t control her and gave her up.
The beast is slowly taking over Claudette the parrot.
Bethany’s attempts to do good fail (not her fault) and then she plans a
variety of evil pranks to get even.
Ebenezer is tortured by a magical shirt.
Recommendation:
This time a mash-up of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket. Like the first book, there are enough mean and evil awkward scenes to make this a tough book to recommend, but if you are
a fan of scary stories and fantasies with monsters and magic, this book will keep you entertained.
With parent or teacher direction, there is a lot in this book that could lead to engaging and positive moral discussions. Bethany has a bad reputation and struggles to get people to see her a different way. Ebenezer has never cared about anyone before but finds that Bethany has become very important to him. The beast tries to get people to cheer his evil ways but finds that it is possible to go to far and turn people again you. As mad as she gets, Bethany finds herself torn and begins to second guess her plans for revenge.
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