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A review by the_fabric_of_words
Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue by Lauren Oliver, H. C. Chester
5.0
We loved the start to this series, and I absolutely gushed over the first book, The Shrunken Head, in my review, Deliciously Macabre.
So when we saw the sequels at our library, we snatched them right up!
The Screaming Statue picks up a little while after the first, with the reader now knowing that Sam, Pippa, Thomas and Max were experimented on by the evil Nicholas Rattigan and given their remarkable powers: Sam, super-strength; Philippa, mind-reading; Thomas, super-bendiness; and Max, accuracy with her knife-throwing.
Likewise, Mr. Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders is still struggling to stay afloat.
Facing utter ruin unless he can bring in an audience, Mr. Dumfrey turns to the children's beloved grandfather-figure, Siegfried Eckleberger, who sculpts the wax dummies for the museum. He asks Siegfried to craft two heads (he'll cannibalize the bodies from other wax mannequins) for a crowd-pleasing and museum-saving exhibit depicting the salacious murder of Mrs. Richstone by her husband, Mr. Richstone!
Except, Mr. Eckleberger is murdered shortly after the heads are delivered, and one, uncharacteristically, is incorrect: Mrs. Richstone has a gap between two teeth. It's an odd mistake for the sculptor to make, as everyone's seen her picture in all the newspapers, and there's clearly no gap.
The police ask the kiddos to see if anything's missing from Mr. Eckleberger's apartment, and all Thomas notices is a photograph missing from a frame.
I won't spoil how the mystery unfolds!
These are great books, and I love the way they don't cut any punches with the macabre -- a display of murder in a museum?! And Rattigan is the ultimate nemesis, convinced of his godliness and how the children should worship him for giving them his powers.
It has a creepy, time-gone-by atmosphere that makes for a great read!
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
So when we saw the sequels at our library, we snatched them right up!
The Screaming Statue picks up a little while after the first, with the reader now knowing that Sam, Pippa, Thomas and Max were experimented on by the evil Nicholas Rattigan and given their remarkable powers: Sam, super-strength; Philippa, mind-reading; Thomas, super-bendiness; and Max, accuracy with her knife-throwing.
Likewise, Mr. Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders is still struggling to stay afloat.
Facing utter ruin unless he can bring in an audience, Mr. Dumfrey turns to the children's beloved grandfather-figure, Siegfried Eckleberger, who sculpts the wax dummies for the museum. He asks Siegfried to craft two heads (he'll cannibalize the bodies from other wax mannequins) for a crowd-pleasing and museum-saving exhibit depicting the salacious murder of Mrs. Richstone by her husband, Mr. Richstone!
Except, Mr. Eckleberger is murdered shortly after the heads are delivered, and one, uncharacteristically, is incorrect: Mrs. Richstone has a gap between two teeth. It's an odd mistake for the sculptor to make, as everyone's seen her picture in all the newspapers, and there's clearly no gap.
The police ask the kiddos to see if anything's missing from Mr. Eckleberger's apartment, and all Thomas notices is a photograph missing from a frame.
I won't spoil how the mystery unfolds!
These are great books, and I love the way they don't cut any punches with the macabre -- a display of murder in a museum?! And Rattigan is the ultimate nemesis, convinced of his godliness and how the children should worship him for giving them his powers.
It has a creepy, time-gone-by atmosphere that makes for a great read!
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/