Charlie and the Grandmothers

Reviewed by: Sheila Dube - Springvale Public Library, Springvale, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: February 9, 2016

Review

Towell spins a dark, dense and eerie story of childhood fears that grow into tangible evil manifestations. Twelve-year-old Charlie and his younger sister Georgia watch as the children in their town slowly vanish without the concern of the adults and Charlie fears they will be next. When his widowed mother begins talking about having them visit their grandmother for a while, he knows that his time has run out. They have no living grandmothers. After the children are taken to a farm run by creepy grandmothers, Charlie finds that memories are being taken from children worldwide to feed the harvest trees that will give the Queen of the terrifying dream world power in the physical world. Through various challenges that include bedbugs, sandmen, phantoms, web-feet grandmothers and a house that changes with Charlie's thoughts, Charlie is able to overcome his fears and save his sister and the other children. The pacing of this middle-grade horror story (suggested for grades 5-8) is slowed by the verbiage of reporting and analysis of the creepy dream world. The vocabulary will challenge readers. Towell's pen and ink illustrations add another level of grotesqueness to the descriptions, although the story does not contain graphic descriptions.

Overall Book Score: good