Fall 2024
The Beast with the Red Ear
From the Set I.M. Dehd
Behave or the Cucuy will get you. That's what Jacob has always been told. Using its large red ear, the beast listens for naughty children to whisk away and make its meal. Jacob reminds his younger sister of this cautionary tale while he's babysitting, but the wild child is unaffected. So he focuses on breaking a few rules of his own instead, playing video games beyond his usual screentime limit. But then something red flashes in the reflection of the screen. A breeze drifts through a window that was closed moments before. The Cucuy heard the misbehaving children. Now it's come to grab its late-night snack . . . Prepared to be scared in this chilling chapter book for young readers by the master of misery and fright, I.M. Dehd.
SLJ Review of I.M. Dehd
This new series offers “seriously scary stories that chill to the bone.” Each standalone title is written by a different author, but all share the same introduction about I.M. Dead, “the master of misery who delights in dreaming up nightmarish tales.”
In the first four novels, readers encounter the ghost of a legendary pirate haunting a surfer, a wish-granting mirror that traps someone in its nightmarish world, an evil egg controlling schoolchildren and making adults disappear, and a beast with red ears hunting for its next meal. Each story centers on a school-aged child going about their daily life before being plunged into a terrifying situation.
Though the books are short chapter novels, there are no illustrations, and the content is intense—not for the faint of heart. The fast-paced plots are perfect for reading aloud as scary campfire stories.
VERDICT: A great addition to horror collections, especially where series like Goosebumps are popular.
Author: I.M. Dehd
Illustrator: B. Sabo
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