The Nightmare Room : They Call Me Creature

Aha! Just found this book in a second hand bookshop and surely it can cure my longing of my childhood fantasy. I read it in once sit, hehe.

This one is the series of The Nightmare Room, another horror series from R. L. Stine.
Even though it is just almost the same with those of Goosebumps, I still do like it. 

It's a story about a girl named Laura Atkins who lives surrounded by the woods and a lot of animals. She likes them both and always feels like home being in the woods and surrounded by the animals.

But unfortunately, there's an animal, oh not sure an animal-just call it creature- lurking in the woods that Laura will be sorry she met. In fact that there are so many creatures hiding in the woods and act so strangely beast and make any other animals frightened. The creature is half human and half animal, it has bald head, ears of a pig, a tail of a horse, and face of a human. That creature doesn't belong in that woods or just doesn't belong anywhere.

Besides, Laura's father has been acting so strangely. He used to be a vet, but just got fired from an animal hospital. He has a shed between the house and the woods, the place where he hides a secret, the place that sometimes Laura hears a sound of a painful voice of animals. But he always keeps that shed locked.

With curiosity, Laura sneaks to that shed. And after she knows what's in that, her father wants her to stay away and eagerly to send her to Chicago where her mother lives.
You'd may be thinking something wrong with her father, the shed and the woods, but it's not R.L. Stine if he doesn't gives us a twist in the end of the story.

I give this story a three-star from five. Why?? Simply because I read it just now, it might be different if I read it fourteen years ago :)

Out of My Mind

Tittle            : Out of My Mind
Author         : Sharon M. Draper
Publisher     : Atheneum Book for Young Reader
Published    : May 9, 2010
ISBN           : 3781416971702
Genre          : Children Fiction
Pages           : 295


For me the very  first lines of a novel should be eye catching, attractive, and memorable which by reading them, reader can set a tone for the rest of the book.  That's what Sharon does in this novel to draw the reader attention.

This novel opens with a powerful discussion of words.  

"Words.I'm surrounded by thousand of words. Maybe million. Cathedral. Mayonnaise. Pomegranate. Mississippi. Neapolitan. Hippopotamus. Silky. Terrifying. Iridescent. Tickle. Sneeze. Wish. Worry....."

The "I" in this novel is Melody, an 11 year old girl. She has a photographic memory, incredibly genius, by the time she was two years old she can remember any word she hears, she can absorbs the meaning of the word correctly, she loves language, she always records the memories and information. But, she can't speak, she can't even move like any other normal kid. Although she has a brilliant brain she hardly delivers want she want. She is the kid who has a cerebral palsy. A disease that traps her life.

Being trapped in a body that almost cannot do everything, she always is misunderstood by people around her that only makes her frustrated. Some of her friend and teacher even consider her as an idiot, but everything changes when she has "Elvira" a machine that can help her talking with a voice that comes after she types some words. She can delivers what she wants, she expresses her emotions, she can beats her friends in a competitions. But after all she's still a kid with a cerebral palsy, with discrimination and differentiation. Poor Melody. 

I guess the writer can easily touches the heart of the reader by the words she writes in this novel, even though for me there's some hyperbolic on the way she sends it. And the way she creates the character especially the mean friends and mean teacher is one dimensional like, Sharon makes them easily to hate, like in a soap opera.

Meanwhile, I think this novel is good for kids to read, so they understand how lucky they are to know that there are so many children living with disabilities and have to get more struggle living their life. To make them to be more grateful and hopefully have some sympathy to them who are unlucky. 

Like what I've said above, the very first line of this novel is catching eyes, it's same important with the ending. Dan tau gaaakkkk cara si penulis mengakhiri cerita buku ini kok sama kaya alur cerpen gue yg gue tulis tahun 2006, "Karena Kata-kata" aaahhhhh (sengaja terakhirnya pake bahasa Indonesia) lol