Story:
This book is actually a collection of short stories which feature kids learning life lessons through a series of strange adventures, or misadventures. Some of those stories involve the characters from his novel Beyond the Dead Forest, continuing their adventures. Several of these stories he's shared in the past, but there are some new tales in the mix as well, such as a Christmas adventure for Carter and Kat. It was good to read each of these tales, and Stephen Groll has shown quite the imagination in crafting all these unique places each character travels to, and comes up with a lot of monsters found nowhere else in fiction. These tales are reminiscent of the Tales of The Brothers Grimm, while combining with the morality of the Tales of Hans Christian Anderson. And just like both collections, these tales can be dark and scary as each character faces the problems they go through. But there is still hope, as there is always hope, in living our lives to help others instead of ourselves.
Caution:
Children in peril. An implied death. Some monsters may be scary sensitive readers.
Lessons:
We find more happiness and joy in living for others instead of ourselves. Bad things sometimes happen to good people. We can learn from our challenges and become better people.
