Adirondack Nightmare
by Rebecca Leonard; Illustrated by Nick Leonard
Published by Leonard Enterprises, Inc.(to come)
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Reviewed by Elysabeth Eldering
According to the introduction page, this is a rewrite of Adirondack Halloween: A Spooky Tale in the North Country.
This quick story takes you through the adventures of William Durant's Halloween camping trip, apparently when he was eighteen years old. He wanted to show his parents how responsible he was and that he could stay at the campsite by himself.
William goes to the camp and then realizes he doesn't have any candy to pass out to the trick-or-treaters and so heads in to town to purchase some candy. Along the way, he meets several people who tell him tales of the haunted cemetery and give him warnings to stay away from there.
William doesn't listen and thinks it is okay to explore the cemetary on his way back to the camp. It seems the warnings were correct and he stirs up a bit of trouble, only to have to be rescued by the old man who gave him the first warning. William is brought back to the old man's store/house and taken care of only to head home before Halloween.
As an aside, I gave the book to my 12-year-old son to read and he said he enjoyed it although he already knew what was going to happen. He noticed some typos or a few problems with the wording in the story. I tried to explain to him that it was the author's way of showing the speech pattern of the old man and other characters.
The ending was very predictable. The recipes do look good and interesting and I may have to try them out.
Armchair Interviews says: Decent read for middle reader.
Author's Web site: http://www.RebeccaLeonard.com