REVIEW: Science Comics: Crows: Genius Birds (graphic novel) by Kyla Vanderklugt

Crows: Genius Birds is an entry in the Science Comics series, which presents educational content in an entertaining way. I checked my copy out from the library.

Review:

A mischievous and very intelligent crow convinces Buddy the dog to leave his yard (thereby allowing all the crow's crow friends an opportunity to get in the house and eat Buddy's food) and join him on a snack-finding adventure. Together, the find food in various places as the crow teaches Buddy about crows and the research that's been done on their cognitive abilities.

There wasn't a lot here that I hadn't already read or heard about elsewhere, but I was expecting that, considering this is aimed at a younger audience. This was a delightful read regardless - the street-smart crow was a good teacher, and Buddy was an adorable, sweet cinnamon roll of a student. The information about crows was presented in a clear, easy-to-digest way, and the art was great.

Sensitive readers might be bothered by a few moments - the crow snacks on a dead pigeon in one bit, and there are some panels depicting dead crows during the part about crow "funerals" - but it's all handled in a matter-of-fact way. 

REVIEW: Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House (book) by R.L. Stine

Welcome to Dead House is the first of the Goosebumps books. I don't think I ever read it.

Review: 

Twelve-year-old Amanda and her younger brother Josh are upset to be moving to a house in Dark Falls, four hours away from their old home. It's a bigger place, but it's dark and somehow menacing. Amanda keeps thinking she sees a boy in the house, and her bedroom's curtains billow in a breeze that doesn't exist. Things come to a head when their dog Petey escapes and Josh becomes convinced he went to the cemetery.

REVIEW: Murder in the Age of Enlightenment: Essential Stories (short story anthology) by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, translated by Bryan Karetnyk

Murder in the Age of Enlightenment is a collection of Akutagawa's short stories. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book contains 7 short stories. Overall, I found this collection to be very readable and strangely intriguing, even though I wasn't always sure what the author was trying to get at.

My favorites were probably "In a Grove" (in which we see a crime from multiple POVs and are never told which version is the truth) and "Madonna in Black" (a creepy story about a possibly cursed statue).

I can't say I necessarily enjoyed it, but "Hell Screen" (about a painter who insisted that he needed to see horrors in order to properly paint them) was certainly compelling. 

REVIEW: Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask (book) by R.L. Stine

The Haunted Mask is one of the earlier entries in R.L. Stine's Goosebumps horror series for kids. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Eleven-year-old Carly Beth is easily scared, which Steve and Chuck, two boys at her school, take full advantage of, doing things like giving her a sandwich with a worm in it and tricking her into thinking she's being bitten by a tarantula. She's so upset that she decides she needs a super scary costume for Halloween in order to properly get back at them.

I vaguely recall reading some of the first Goosebumps books, including this one, and deciding that I was probably too old for them. As with Christopher Pike's books, the original covers were, in a lot of ways, more memorable than the books themselves. Although this was technically a reread, I'd forgotten pretty much everything except the very end.