Mary McScary, written by R.L. Stine, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Student Reviewer: Jack M.
Summary: This book is about a little girl named Mary McScary. Her favorite thing in the world is to scare other people. She scares her parents at breakfast, lunch, and dinner; she does crazy things with food to scare her parents. Mary likes to scare her pet dog and goldfish too, she can even scare balloons. Her cousin Harry McScary comes to visit but he is not afraid of Mary, and that bothers her. Mary dresses in hairy and scary costumes to scare Harry, but he still does not get scared. She tries to scare him with different animals, like spiders, gorillas, and snakes, but Harry instead befriends the animals every time. Finally, Mary goes to her last resort, and tries to kiss Harry on the cheek. Harry finally gets scared and runs away out the door, leaving a triumphant Mary behind.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book is a perfect preset for introducing young readers to R.L. Stine and his scary writing style, a good foundation for Goosebumps. It has lots of fun rhymes and catchy character names. There is a great variety of animals represented in the book, so it is appealing to many audiences. Harry’s phrases are a nice positive contrast to mary’s negative phrases about trying to scare him, very clever refutes. Mary never gave up and she found a way to reach her goal, if a little outside the box. Harry always finds a way to bond with the scary animals, illustrating the moral concept that appearance is not a defining personable characteristic. It has a funny ending where Mary uses a common family tactic to scare the boy cousin, which is relatable to young readers with siblings/cousins. The book has beautiful illustrations with brilliant colors and diverse props and scenery; it’s a very fine balance of warm colors that accents all the individual drawings on a page. Very funny art style and wacky facial expressions. It would be good for a Halloween display and a perfect pick for the budding horror genre enthusiast.